Contact State Space: Automatic Generation, Reasoning, and Search

在许多机器人操作任务中，特别是装配任务，接触中的物体的运动是常见的，甚至是期望的，以减少不确定性。接触状态的推理是处理接触运动的一个重要工具，也是本课题的重点。具体而言，本研究有两个主要目标：（1）调查离散接触状态和状态转换的适当表示，（2）调查接触状态转换方面的接触运动自动规划的标准和技术。 第一次重大研究 目标响应于这样的事实，尽管在相关研究中已经提出了表示多面体的离散接触状态的各种方法，但是缺乏基于某些重要标准来定义/表示接触状态和状态转换的最佳方法的一般和系统的研究，例如 （一）描述/表示有多容易 状态转换，以及（ii）区分相邻状态的容易程度。 第一个标准是重要的，因为需要自动化 接触状态空间的生成。 的 第二个标准，解决表示的粒度，是特别重要的，因为需要在存在不确定性的情况下自动识别接触状态。第二个主要的研究目标是密切相关的第一个，特别是针对灵活的装配任务。在追求这两个目标的过程中，理论概念将通过实验实现和执行来验证。这将导致对最常见的组装任务的物理学的基本理解， 将这些知识定量地与 规划过程，可以在柔性装配中执行它们。 这种合作努力预计将导致的结果，将显着影响的设计，评估，生成和执行的接触运动计划的自动装配一般。

In many robotic manipulation tasks, especially assembly tasks, motion of objects in contact is common and even desired in order to reduce uncertainties. An important tool in dealing with motion in contact is reasoning about contact states, which is the focus of this project. Specifically, this research has two major goals: (1) to investigate proper representation of discrete contact states and state transitions, and (2) to investigate criteria and techniques for automatic planning of contact motions in terms of contact state transitions. The first major research goal responds to the fact that although various ways of representing discrete contact states for polyhedra have been proposed in related research, there is a lack of general and systematic investigation on the best way(s) of defining/representing contact states and state transitions based on certain important criteria, such as (i) how easy it is to describe/represent state transitions, and (ii) how easy it is to distinguish adjacent states. The first criterion is important from the need of automatic generation of contact state space. The second criterion, addressing the granularity of representation, is particularly important from the need of automatic identification of contact states in the presence of uncertainties. The second major research goal is closely related to the first one and is particularly aimed at flexible assembly tasks. In pursuing both goals, theoretical concepts will be validated by experimental implementations and executions. This will result in a fundamental understanding of the physics of the most common assembly tasks and relate this knowledge quantitatively to the planning processes which can perform them in flexible assembly. This collaborative effort is expected to lead to results that will significantly impact the design, evaluation, generation and execution of conta ct-motion plans for automatic assembly in general.