Manipulation Planning

Even though grasping has been a central topic in robotics for decades, robots still have great difficulty to pick up arbitrary objects when they operate in open, unknown environments or under uncontrolled conditions. Lifting this limitation would make using robots fit for many repetitive chores: robots could check and restock supermarket aisles, tidy up households, dispatch mail orders at distribution centers, collect ripe fruits, or do ecological pest control by selectively removing bugs.

To make this vision a reality, robots have to learn to grasp as reliable as humans. We try to discover the tricks people unconsciously employ when they cannot rely on their perception, and transfer these insights to robots. One such strategy is to exploit the structure of the environment to guide hand and finger motion quickly and reliably during the grasp.

The lead effort for the grasping projects discussed below are funded by the Soft Manipulation (SOMA) Horizon 2020 EU project. Please visit the project website [1] for more information.

How can we build robots that can exploit constraints to motion rather than avoid them? How do we control such robots? We explore these questions in our research project on soft hands [2]. 

Our approach to grasping is motivated by the fact that humans don't avoid contact with the environment but rather exploit it to generate haptic feedback complementing visual feedback. This exploitation of environmental constraints simplifies the grasping problem by converting a high-dimensional configuration search problem into successive local searches guided by these environmental constraints, such as surfaces or edges.

We are developing algorithms that model the environment as a collection of environmental constraints which can be used to generate reactive feedback plans that lead to robust and reliable grasps.

Contact: Clemens Eppner, Jessica Abele

In classical motion planning the environment is considered to be static. But changing the environment can improve planning e.g. removing an obstacle to free the path to the goal. Part feeders, fixtures and conveyor belt systems are examples of industrial engineered environments. Safety rails, coin slots and traffic signs are examples of our every day life.

We are developing automated design algorithms that engineer the environment to increase grasp robustness.  The focus of our research on environmental design lies on design strategies in the context of motion/grasp planning with contact.

Contact: Jessica Abele