Optimization-based Posture Generation for Whole-body Contact Motion by Contact Point Search on the Body Surface

TL;DR

This paper introduces an optimization-based method for generating robot postures that utilize all available surface contacts, improving stability and efficiency in object manipulation tasks.

Contribution

It presents a novel posture generation approach that simultaneously determines joint configurations and contact points using surface parameterization and gradient optimization.

Findings

Robots effectively manipulate objects using whole-body contact.

The method improves stability and efficiency of robot motions.

Successful experiments demonstrate practical applicability.

Abstract

Whole-body contact is an effective strategy for improving the stability and efficiency of the motion of robots. For robots to automatically perform such motions, we propose a posture generation method that employs all available surfaces of the robot links. By representing the contact point on the body surface by two-dimensional configuration variables, the joint positions and contact points are simultaneously determined through a gradient-based optimization. By generating motions with the proposed method, we present experiments in which robots manipulate objects effectively utilizing whole-body contact.