TechTalks from event: Technical session talks from ICRA 2012

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Mobile Manipulation: Planning & Control

  • Planning with Adaptive Dimensionality for Mobile Manipulation Authors: Gochev, Kalin; Safonova, Alla; Likhachev, Maxim
    Mobile manipulation planning is a hard problem composed of multiple challenging sub-problems, some of which require searching through large high-dimensional state-spaces. The focus of this work is on computing a trajectory to safely maneuver an object through an environment, given the start and goal configurations. In this work we present a heuristic search-based deterministic mobile manipulation planner, based on our recently-developed algorithm for planning with adaptive dimensionality. Our planner demonstrates reasonable performance, while also providing strong guarantees on completeness and suboptimality bounds with respect to the graph representing the problem.
  • Unifying Perception, Estimation and Action for Mobile Manipulation Via Belief Space Planning Authors: Kaelbling, Leslie; Lozano-Perez, Tomas
    In this paper, we describe an integrated strategy for planning, perception, state-estimation and action in complex mobile manipulation domains. The strategy is based on planning in the belief space of probability distribution over states. Our planning approach is based on hierarchical symbolic regression (pre-image back-chaining). We develop a vocabulary of fluents that describe sets of belief states, which are goals and subgoals in the planning process. We show that a relatively small set of symbolic operators lead to task-oriented perception in support of the manipulation goals.
  • Distributed Cooperative Object Attitude Manipulation Authors: Markdahl, Johan; Karayiannidis, Yiannis; Hu, Xiaoming; Kragic, Danica
    This paper proposes a local information based control law in order to solve the planar manipulation problem of rotating a grasped rigid object to a desired orientation using multiple mobile manipulators. We adopt a multi-agent systems theory approach and assume that: (i) the manipulators (agents) are capable of sensing the relative position to their neighbors at discrete time instances, (ii) neighboring agents may exchange information at discrete time instances, and (iii) the communication topology is connected. Control of the manipulators is carried out at a kinematic level in continuous time and utilizes inverse kinematics. The mobile platforms are assigned trajectory tracking tasks that adjust the positions of the manipulator bases in order to avoid singular arm configurations. Our main result concerns the stability of the proposed control law.
  • A Hybrid Control for Automatic Docking of Electric Vehicles for Recharging Authors: Petrov, Plamen; Boussard, clément; Ammoun, Samer; Nashashibi, Fawzi
    In this paper, we present the architecture of an innovative docking station for electric vehicles recharging and a hybrid control scheme for automatic docking of the vehicles. This work is a part of on-going project concerning the development of a smart charging station for electric vehicles equipped with an automated arm, which connect the vehicle to the charging station, and an infrared beacon system for localizing the automatically maneuvering vehicle in the docking area. The proposed control scheme combines time-optimal (bang-bang) control with continuous time-invariant nonlinear control, which stabilizes the vehicle to a small neighborhood of the docking point. Simulation and experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller
  • On Continuous Null Space Projections for Torque-Based, Hierarchical, Multi-Objective Manipulation Authors: Dietrich, Alexander; Albu-Schäffer, Alin; Hirzinger, Gerd
    The technological progress in the field of robotics results in more and more complex manipulators. However, having an increasing number of degrees of freedom raises the question of how to use them effectively. In turn, establishing manipulators in human environments, e.g., as service robots, calls for the fulfillment of various constraints and tasks at the same time. In the context of torque controlled robotic systems, we provide an approach to simultaneously deal with a multitude of tasks and constraints which are arranged in a hierarchy, utilizing the large number of actuated joints of the manipulator. To this end, we propose a continuous null space projection technique to consider unilateral constraints, singular Jacobian matrices and dynamic variations of the priority order within the hierarchical structure. We show that activating and deactivating tasks as well as crossing singularities does not lead to a discontinuous control law. Simulations and experiments on the humanoid Justin of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) validate our approach. The presented concept is supposed to contribute to whole-body control frameworks.