A Hierarchical Manipulation Planning Framework Combining Striking, Pushing, and Pick & Place Motion Primitives
Prakrut Kotecha, Priyansh Sinha, Nagamanikandan Govindan · 2024
Mobile manipulators find applications in manufacturing, infrastructure inspection, and domestic services. While most mobile manipulators excel at pick and place, we aim to combine three distinct manipulation primitives: striking, pushing, and pick-and-place. This integration enables versatile object manipulation and expands the robot’s operational range. Furthermore, we propose a new attachment that can be easily fitted with most industrial two-finger grippers, capable of making line contact while pushing or striking an object. The proposed framework includes a high-level action sequence planner, dedicated offline planners for each manipulation primitive (Strike, Push, and Pick & Place), and a whole-body controller. Preliminary results from simulations and hardware experiments demonstrate the potential for diverse applications in the field of mobile manipulation.