1 research outputs found
Can I lift it? Humanoid robot reasoning about the feasibility of lifting a heavy box with unknown physical properties
A robot cannot lift up an object if it is not feasible to do so. However, in
most research on robot lifting, "feasibility" is usually presumed to exist a
priori. This paper proposes a three-step method for a humanoid robot to reason
about the feasibility of lifting a heavy box with physical properties that are
unknown to the robot. Since feasibility of lifting is directly related to the
physical properties of the box, we first discretize a range for the unknown
values of parameters describing these properties and tabulate all valid optimal
quasi-static lifting trajectories generated by simulations over all
combinations of indices. Second, a physical-interaction-based algorithm is
introduced to identify the robust gripping position and physical parameters
corresponding to the box. During this process, the stability and safety of the
robot are ensured. On the basis of the above two steps, a third step of mapping
operation is carried out to best match the estimated parameters to the indices
in the table. The matched indices are then queried to determine whether a valid
trajectory exists. If so, the lifting motion is feasible; otherwise, the robot
decides that the task is beyond its capability. Our method efficiently
evaluates the feasibility of a lifting task through simple interactions between
the robot and the box, while simultaneously obtaining the desired safe and
stable trajectory. We successfully demonstrated the proposed method using a NAO
humanoid robot.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures. Accepted by IROS 202