Motion Planning for Fluid Manipulation using Simplified Dynamics

TL;DR

This paper introduces an optimization-based motion planning algorithm for fluid manipulation that incorporates simplified fluid dynamics models to generate smooth, collision-free trajectories for manipulators transferring liquids.

Contribution

It proposes a novel simplified fluid dynamics model integrated into motion planning, reducing computational complexity while maintaining accuracy.

Findings

Successfully plans trajectories in complex environments

Validates simplified model against Navier-Stokes simulations

Demonstrates applicability across various obstacle and container shapes

Abstract

We present an optimization-based motion planning algorithm to compute a smooth, collision-free trajectory for a manipulator used to transfer a liquid from a source to a target container. We take into account fluid dynamics constraints as part of trajectory computation. In order to avoid the high complexity of exact fluid simulation, we introduce a simplified dynamics model based on physically inspired approximations and system identification. Our optimization approach can incorporate various other constraints such as collision avoidance with the obstacles, kinematic and dynamics constraints of the manipulator, and fluid dynamics characteristics. We demonstrate the performance of our planner on different benchmarks corresponding to various obstacles and container shapes. Furthermore, we also evaluate its accuracy by validating the motion plan using an accurate but computationally costly Navier-Stokes fluid simulation.