Dynamic non-prehensile object transportation

Abstract

When possible, non-prehensile transportation (i.e. transporting objects without grasping them) can be faster and more efficient than prehensile transportation. However, the need to explicitly consider reaction and friction forces yields kino-dynamic constraints that are difficult to take into account by traditional planning algorithms. Based on the recently developed Admissible Velocity Propagation algorithm, we propose here a fast and general non-prehensile transportation scheme. Our contribution is twofold. First we show how to cast the dynamic balance constraints of a 3D object (e.g. a bottle) into a form compatible with the AVP algorithm. Second, we extend the AVP-RRT algorithm into a more efficient AVP-biRRT algorithm, which makes use of the idea of concurrently growing two trees, one rooted at the starting configuration and one rooted at the goal configuration. We also show both in simulations and on a real robot how our algorithm allows planning fast and dynamic trajectories for the non-prehensile transportation of a bottle.