Abstract

We, humans, utilize our potential to physically interact with the world by employing a diverse set of contact-rich strategies, such as pushing, throwing, catching, sliding, rolling, and pivoting. However, we are yet to empower robots with such ability of embracing contacts during manipulation. In this workshop, we would like to discuss the unique challenges that handling contacts brings in the presence of under-actuated, hybrid, and uncertain dynamics, raising questions such as: 

1)  How to model hybrid contact dynamics in planning and control; with constraints (phase-based vs contact implicit) or via learned contact dynamics?

2) How to handle errors in the timing of contact-mode switches that might trigger impacts? 

3) How to address model mismatch and generalize beyond training data; in scenarios with different numbers and types of contact events? 

4) How effective can novel tools and gripper designs be? 

5) What is the role of tactile and geometric information when handling contacts?

Amid a growing interest in making robots manipulate in human-centered environments, e.g. home-care, logistics, healthcare, we aim at gathering researchers from mechanical design, perception, control, planning and learning, to tackle, among others, some of the above questions and to discuss the future of contact-rich manipulation.

Speakers

Organizers