1. Robotic Manipulation: Analysis and Algorithms CSCI-4963/6965
Jeff Trinkle
Lally 209b
(Jacky Carley)
JCT:9/21/2018

2. Course organization Lectures MR 2:00 – 3:50. Ten-minute break.
Textbook: Mechanics of Robotic Manipulation, MIT Press 2001.
Grading.
40% Assignments. About four.
40% Term Project
Proposal
Report
Expect to spend hours
Project will be shared with classmates – ideas may appear on final
20% Final exam.
Lab:
Rooms: MRC 331, 332, 345, 352
Garcia and (maybe) Barrett Arm available
JCT:9/21/2018

3. Course content – How does manipulation work?
Taxonomy of Models
Kinematic manipulation
Kinematics: study of motion without regard for forces
Application to manipulation: motion planning, models of contact
Quasistatic manipulation
Rigid body statics: sum of forces = 0
Friction.
Application to manipulation: grasping, fixturing, pushing
Dynamic manipulation
Rigid body dynamics: sum of forces = mass * acceleration
Impact: impulse = change in momentum
Application to manipulation: tossing, parts orienting, juggling
JCT:9/21/2018

4. To build model-based autonomous robots
Why?
Scientific curiosity
We want to know how manipulation works
To continue advancing technology
How do we retain the experiential knowledge in a shrinking skilled labor force?
How do we build micro-machines?
To build robots
Use engineer’s knowledge of how manipulation works
Is it even possible to NOT have such a model?
To build model-based autonomous robots
Use robot’s knowledge of how manipulation works
Is it even possible to NOT …?
Perhaps an implicit model?
JCT:9/21/2018

5. Why build model-based robots?
Maybe you should not
For many tasks, you can build a robot based on your own knowledge of mechanics of manipulation. Don’t underestimate ad hoc engineering based on human intuition and experience
Sometimes engineers should
So the robot can try things out in its head rather than the real world
Sometimes scientists should
As a properly skeptical scientist, how do you show that some phenomenon is crucial to a given task? That you have properly modeled that phenomenon?
JCT:9/21/2018

6. What is manipulation? The State of the Art
Human vs Robot
JCT:9/21/2018

7. Go to Matt’s Lecture 1 Page 15-19
Typical automation in a structured environment
Go to Matt’s Lecture 1
Page 15-19
JCT:9/21/2018

8. What is manipulation? The State of the Art
Ram’s planner
Kaneko’s hands
Koditschek’s HRex
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9. Pawl in Fixture
JCT:9/21/2018

10. Dependence on Friction
Frictionless finger
Fixel friction coefficients: 0.01, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6
Light blue band – push to contact all three fixels regardless of contact state.
Gray band is for no contacts.
Pusher friction varies in [0, 0.5).
Friction on fixels is 0.2.
JCT:9/21/2018

11. Orienting Parts Feeder
Planning of dexterous manipulation activities is very difficult, because one needs predictive models before one can plan.
For example, if the fingers moves to the left, will the heptgon roll to the left or translate? Answering these questions requires
the solution of highly complex mathematical models. Our research has been in the development of rigorous solution techniques
and their use in planning algorithms.
Ultimately one will be able to endow robots with physical dexterity comparable to that of human, so that we can accomplish
complex tasks (like building a lunar habitat for humans) in hazardous environments.
Part enters cg down
Part enters cg up
JCT:9/21/2018

12. Meso-scale peg-in-hole task
Go to Movies in C:\trink\Movies\DexManPlan\meso_scale_peg_in_hole
Planning of dexterous manipulation activities is very difficult, because one needs predictive models before one can plan.
For example, if the fingers moves to the left, will the heptgon roll to the left or translate? Answering these questions requires
the solution of highly complex mathematical models. Our research has been in the development of rigorous solution techniques
and their use in planning algorithms.
Ultimately one will be able to endow robots with physical dexterity comparable to that of human, so that we can accomplish
complex tasks (like building a lunar habitat for humans) in hazardous environments.
Part enters cg up
JCT:9/21/2018

13. Go to Matt’s Lecture 1 Page 20-27
What is manipulation? Compare and contrast
Go to Matt’s Lecture 1
Page 20-27
JCT:9/21/2018

14. And a Dog Shows Us Up
JCT:9/21/2018