Two manipulation planning algorithms

International audienceThis paper addresses the motion planning problem for a robot in presence of movable objects. Motion planning in this context appears as a constrained instance of the coordinated motion planning problem for multiple movable bodies. Indeed, a solution path in the configuration space of the robot and all movable objects is a sequence of transit paths where the robot moves alone and transfer paths where a movable object follows the robot. A major problem is to find the set of configurations where the robot has to grasp or release objects.The paper gives an overview of a general approach which consists in building a manipulation graph whose connected components characterize the existence of solutions. Two planners developed at LAAS-CNRS illustrate how the general formulation can be instantiated in specific cases