RI: Small: Practical techniques for robotic manipulation of string and wire

该提案提出了一个计划，以解决使用最小的传感和驱动来操纵柔性材料（如线和电线）的问题。柔性材料在制造业和外科手术中无处不在，人类的例子表明，柔性材料的复杂操作是可能的，从打结到折叠衣物甚至折纸。目前，机器人在这些领域的能力远远不够，使得许多无聊、重复的工厂任务无法由机器人自动化完成。目前的仿真模型的灵活的对象是太复杂的计算标准的方法来操纵规划是有效的。此外，尽管使用现有模型模拟的一根绳子的动态行为在视觉上可能是可信的，但这种行为不太可能与真实的世界中的任何特定绳子相匹配，因此用途有限。打结有许多应用，从制造到外科手术，再到农业和服务机器人。可变形物体的操纵是许多制造和家庭应用的基础。拟议的工作有应用到工厂的运作，似乎适用于潜在的未来需要在操纵线性，灵活的1-D结构，如碳纳米管和proteins.Broader的影响：可靠的，廉价的技术的发展操纵柔性材料超越了明显的潜在影响工厂自动化。极简主义特别适用于涉及新尺度操作的问题。用于打结的固定装置可以在微观尺度上建造，允许并行操作许多非常微小的线或杆。虽然我们强调目前工作的重点是理论基础和宏观尺度上的操纵，但人们可以想象使用巧妙设计的几何形状来操纵碳纳米管或蛋白质-这是标准串行臂设计不可能实现的。

This proposal presents a plan to attack the problem of manipulating flexible materials like string and wire using minimal sensing and actuation. Flexible materials are ubiquitous in manufacturung and surgery, and human examples demonstrate that complex manipulation of flexible materials is possible, from knot-tying to folding laundry or even origami. Robots are currently far less capable in these domains, leaving many boring, repetitive factory tasks inaccessible to robotic automation. Current simulation models of flexible objects are too computationally complex for standard approaches to manipulation planning to be effective. Furthermore, although the simulated dynamic behavior of a piece of string using existing models might be visually believable, the behavior is unlikely to match any particular piece of string in the real world and, therefore, is of limited use.Knot tying has many applications ranging from manufacturing to surgery to agriculture and service robots. Manipulation of deformable objects is fundamental to many manufacturing and household applications. The proposed work has application to factory operations and seems to apply to potential future needs in manipulation of linear, flexible 1-D structures such as carbon nanotubes and proteins.Broader Impacts: The development of reliable, inexpensive techniques for manipulation of flexible materials goes beyond the obvious potential impact on factory automation. Minimalism is particularly appropriate for problems involving manipulation at new scales. Fixtures for tying knots might be built at the microscale, allowing parallel manipulation of many very tiny threads or rods. Although we emphasize that the focus of the current work is on theoretical foundations and manipulation at the macro-scale, one can imagine using cleverly-designed geometries to manipulate carbon nano-tubes or proteins - things not possible with standard serial arm designs.