This project is a multidisciplinary effort of computer scientist, mathematicians, and engineers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and University of Pennsylvania (U Penn). The focus of the research will be on the development of new planning techniques for tasks that cannot be performed successfully without intermittent contacts. Such tasks are referred to as manipulation tasks. Manipulations tasks, particularly those in which the effects of dynamics influence the system performance and outcome, are exceedingly important in robotics. The ability of a robot to perform such tasks completely changes its character from passive observer to active participant capable of performing useful work, whether it be assisting a first- responder on the scene of a building collapse or assembling parts in micro-scale devices.
Intellectual Merit This research requires the simultaneous development of new algorithms and mathematical models for analyzing and predicting the motion of multibody systems with frictional, compliant, intermittent contacts. These developments are being done with attention paid to practical engineering concerns (verified by experiments) that drive the form of mathematical models, and in turn, the algorithms and mathematics.
Broader Impacts The results of this project are directly applicable to a large class of problems in locomotion and manipulation that is central to ongoing research on humanoid robots, and on fixturing and assembly in manufacturing settings. On the educational front, the research team is developing a new graduate-level course on Manipulation Planning Analysis, across UPenn and RPI, that will be co-taught by the co-PIs.
