A Quasi-static Model and Simulation Approach for Pushing, Grasping, and Jamming

Mathew Halm and Michael Posa

Quasi-static models of robotic motion with frictional contact provide a computationally efficient framework for analysis and have been widely used for planning and control of non-prehensile manipulation. In this work, we present a novel quasi-static model of planar manipulation that directly maps commanded manipulator velocities to object motion. While quasi-static models have traditionally been unable to capture grasping and jamming behaviors, our approach solves this issue by explicitly modeling the limiting behavior of a velocity-controlled manipulator. We retain the precise modeling of surface contact pressure distributions and efficient computation of contact-rich behaviors of previous methods and additionally prove existence of solutions for any desired manipulator motion. We derive continuous and time-stepping formulations, both posed as tractable Linear Complementarity Problems (LCPs).

@inproceedings{Halm2018,
  address = {Merida, Mexico},
  author = {Halm, Mathew and Posa, Michael},
  booktitle = {The Workshop on the Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR)},
  keywords = {dynamics,linear complementarity problems,manipulation and grasping,quasi-static motion,rigid body motion,simulation},
  title = {{A Quasi-static Model and Simulation Approach for Pushing, Grasping, and Jamming}},
  year = {2018},
  arxiv = {1902.03487},
  url = {https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-44051-0_29}
}