Analyzing the utility of a support pin in sequential robotic manipulation

Abstract

Abstract-Pick-and-place regrasp is an important manipulation skill for a robot. It helps a robot accomplish tasks that cannot be achieved within a single grasp, due to constraints such as kinematics or collisions between the robot and the environment. Previous work on pick-and-place regrasp only leveraged flat surfaces for intermediate placements, and thus is limited in the capability to reorient an object.In this paper, we extend the reorientation capability of a pick-and-place regrasp by adding a vertical pin on the working surface and using it as the intermediate location for regrasping. In particular, our method automatically computes the stable placements of an object leaning against a vertical pin, finds several force-closure grasps, generates a graph of regrasp actions, and searches for the regrasp sequence. To compare the regrasping performance with and without using pins, we evaluate the success rate and the length of regrasp sequences while performing tasks on various models. Experiments on reorientation and assembly tasks validate the benefit of using support pins for regrasping.

Manipulation planning under changing external forces

“…Later, Siméon et al (2004) presented a planner via random sampling that solves the problem using an alternating sequence of transfer and transit actions. More recently, planners have been proposed to solve the planning problem in the case of multiple manipulators for assembly-like tasks (Lertkultanon and Pham, 2018;Wan and Harada, 2016;Dogar et al, 2019).…”

“…More recent works propose some other graph-based representations, such as the regrasp graph Harada, 2016, 2017). Most existing studies on regrasp planning use object placements on extra supports for regrasping, such as support surfaces Harada, 2016, 2017;Chavan-Dafie and Rodriguez, 2018) and other complex structures (Cao et al, 2016;Ma et al, 2018). Fig.…”

Assembly Planning by Subassembly Decomposition Using Blocking Reduction

“…This work does not address generating part fixtures for assembly, but this is an area of ongoing research. [17][18][19]…”

A Hand Combining Two Simple Grippers to Pick Up and Arrange Objects for Assembly

“…Wan et al [14] developed a system that reorients an object from one placement to another by using a sequence of pick-ups and place-downs. Following the work, Cao et al [15] used a vertical pin as the intermediate location for regrasping. Ma et al [16] developed a dynamic simulator to generate stable poses and reorient objects by using them as intermediate states.…”