Preparatory Manipulation Planning using Automatically Determined Single and Dual Arms
This work addresses preparatory manipulation planning for robots in industrial or logistical settings, but it is incremental as it builds on existing regrasp graph methods.
The paper tackles the problem of planning robot manipulation sequences to reorient objects for tasks like assembly or packing, and it presents an algorithm that automatically determines whether to use single or dual arms, achieving successful implementation on various humanoid robots in simulations and real-world experiments.
This paper presents a manipulation planning algorithm for robots to reorient objects. It automatically finds a sequence of robot motion that manipulates and prepares an object for specific tasks. Examples of the preparatory manipulation planning problems include reorienting an electric drill to cut holes, reorienting workpieces for assembly, and reorienting cargo for packing, etc. The proposed algorithm could plan single and dual arm manipulation sequences to solve the problems. The mechanism under the planner is a regrasp graph which encodes grasp configurations and object poses. The algorithms search the graph to find a sequence of robot motion to reorient objects. The planner is able to plan both single and dual arm manipulation. It could also automatically determine whether to use a single arm, dual arms, or their combinations to finish given tasks. The planner is examined by various humanoid robots like Nextage, HRP2Kai, HRP5P, etc., using both simulation and real-world experiments.