RI 16-843: Manipulation Algorithms

Instructor: Siddhartha Srinivasa (siddh "addressed at" cs.cmu.edu)
Lectures: Mon and Wed, noon-1:20, NSH 1305
Mailing list: 16843-f12 "addressed at" lists.andrew.cmu.edu

Description

This is an advanced graduate-level class on the theory and algorithms that enable robots to physically manipulate their world. The class will focus on the geometry of manipulation configuration spaces, motion planning in these spaces, synthesizing robust and stable grasps for dexterous hands, reconfiguring clutter, task-level planning of multi-stage manipulation, physics-based actions, and addressing perception and model uncertainty, with application to mobile manipulators and humanoid robots.

Important Dates

October 15 - Project proposals due
November 28 - Last day of class
December 5 - final presentation - Phillips, Tien, Paolini, Zhu
December 10 - final presentation - Wei, Javdani, Hood, Gao
December 12 - final presentation - Wang, Zhang, Sheshadri, Klingensmith
December 17 - final report due
December 20 - final grades due

Schedule

This schedule is an approximate plan, and is subject to change during the semester.

# Day Date Topic Reading Notes
1 M 27 Aug Introduction Creation Myths: The Beginnings of Robotics Research, Mason, IEEE RAM 19(2), 2012. URL
The Summer Vision Project, Papert, AIM, 1966. URL 		Lecture 1
2 W 29 Aug Grasping - Theory Chapter 5 Multifingered Hand Kinematics, A Mathematical Introduction to Robotic Manipulation, Murray, Li, Sastry, 1994. URL
The condition for contact grasp stability, Montana, ICRA 1991. PDF
 Lecture 2
3 W 5 Sep Grasping - Practice Handey: A robot system that recognizes, plans, and manipulates, Lozano-Perez et al, ICRA 1987. PDF
Automatic Grasp Planning Using Shape Primitives, Miller et al, ICRA 2003. PDF
 Lecture 3
4 M 10 Sep Student presentations Enqi Zhu - Analysis of Multifingered Hands, Kerr and Roth, IJRR 1986. PDF
Bryan Hood - Task-Oriented Optimal Grasping by Multifingered Robot Hands, IEEE JRA, 1988. PDF
Chen Gao - Knowledge-Based Prehension: Capturing Human Dexterity, ICRA 1988. PDF
Daniel Maturana - Data-driven grasping, Autonomous Robots, 2011. PDF 		Presentations
5 W 12 Sep Jacobian control - SVD A Singularly Valuable Decomposition: The SVD of a Matrix, Kalman 2002. PDF Lecture 4
6 M 19 Sep Student presentations Hao Wang - An Inverse Kinematic Architecture Enforcing an Arbitrary Number of Strict Priority Levels PDF
Zheng Yang - Obstacle Avoidance for Kinematically Redundant Manipulators in Dynamically Varying Environments PDF
Karthik Sheshadri - Singularities, stable surfaces, and the repeatable behavior of kinematically redundant manipulators PDF
Matthew Klingensmith - Singularity-Robust Task-Priority Redundancy Resolution for Real-Time Kinematic Control of Robot Manipulators PDF
Presentations
7 M 24 Sep Jacobian control - pseudoinverse Introduction to Inverse Kinematics with Jacobian Transpose, Pseudoinverse and Damped Least Squares methods, Buss, 2009. PDF Lecture 5
8 W 26 Sep Configuration Space Spatial Planning: A Configuration Space Approach, Lozano-Perez, 1980. PDF Lecture 6
9 M 1 Oct Student presentations Michael Phillips - Real-Time Configuration Space Transforms for Obstacle Avoidance. PDF
Rex Tien - Computation of Configuration-Space Obstacles Using the Fast Fourier Transform. PDF
Robert Paolini - Deadlock-Free and Collision-Free Coordination of Two Robot Manipulators. PDF
Shervin Javdani - On Multiple Moving Objects. PDF
Presentations
10 W 3 Oct Manipulation Configuration Spaces Spatial Planning: A Configuration Space Approach, Lozano-Perez, 1980. PDF Lecture 7
11 M 8 Oct Student presentations Zijun Wei - On Multi-Arm Manipulation Planning. PDF
Enqi Zhu - Manipulation Planning with Probabilistic Roadmaps. PDF
Bryan Hood - A Hybrid Approach to Intricate Motion, Manipulation and Task Planning. PDF
Chen Gao - Planning Among Movable Obstacles with Artificial Constraints. PDF 		Presentations
12 W 10 Oct Guest Lecture: Mehmet Dogar
Physics-based Manipulation		 Push-Grasping with Dexterous Hands: Mechanics and a Method, Dogar and Srinivasa, 2010. PDF Lecture 8
13 M 15 Oct Student presentations Karthik Sheshadri - Practical Force-Motion Models for Sliding Manipulation PDF
Hao Wang - Push-Grasping with Dexterous Hands: Mechanics and a Method PDF
Matthew Klingensmith - Orienting Polygonal Parts without Sensors PDF
Zheng Yang - A Framework for Push-grasping in Clutter PDF
Presentations
14 W 17 Oct Motion Planning - Roadmaps Analysis of Probabilistic Roadmaps for Path Planning, Kavraki, Kolountzakis, and Latombe, 1998. PDF Lecture 9
15 M 22 Oct Student presentations Michael Phillips - Motion Planning with Six Degrees of Freedom by Multistrategic Bidirectional Heuristic Free-Space Enumeration. PDF
Rex Tien - The Gaussian sampling strategy for probabilistic roadmap planners. PDF
Robert Paolini - A Randomized Algorithm for Robot Path Planning Based on Lazy Evaluation. PDF
Shervin Javdani - On the Relationship Between Classical Grid Search and Probabilistic Roadmaps. PDF
Presentations
16 W 24 Oct Motion Planning - Single query methods Path planning in expansive configuration spaces, Hsu, Latombe and Motwani, 1999. PDF
RRT-Connect: An Efficient Approach to Single-Query Path Planning, Kuffner and Lavalle, 1999. PDF 		Lecture 10
17 M 29 Oct Student presentations Zijun Wei - The Ariadne's Clew Algorithm. PDF
Enqi Zhu - A single-query bi-directional probabilistic roadmap planner with lazy collision checking. PDF
Bryan Hood - Kinodynamic motion planning by interior-exterior cell exploration. PDF
Chen Gao - Motion planning using adaptive random walks. PDF 		Presentations
18 W 31 Oct Planning in cost spaces Approaches for Heuristically Biasing RRT Growth, Urmson and Simmons, 2003. PDF
Anytime RRTs, Ferguson and Stentz, 2006. PDF
Sampling-based path planning on configuration-space costmaps, Jaillet, Cortes, and Simeon, 2010. PDF
Sampling-based algorithms for optimal motion planning, Karaman and Frazzoli, 2011. PDF 		Lecture 11
19 M 5 Nov Student presentations Hao Wang - Creating high-quality paths for motion planning PDF
Zheng Yang - Control of probabilistic diffusion in motion planning PDF
Karthik Sheshadri - Addressing cost-space chasms in manipulation planning PDF
Matthew Klingensmith - Anytime motion planning using the RRT* PDF
Presentations
20 M 12 Nov Trajectory Optimization CHOMP: Gradient Optimization Techniques for Efficient Motion Planning, 2009 PDF
Probabilistic Inference Using Markov Chain Monte Carlo Methods, 1991 PDF 		Lecture 12
21 W 14 Nov Guest Lecture: Anca Dragan
Learning in trajectory optimization		 Manipulation Planning with Goal Sets Using Constrained Trajectory Optimization, 2011 PDF
Learning from Experience in Manipulation Planning: Setting the Right Goals , 2011 PDF 		Lecture 13
22 M 19 Nov Student presentations Michael Phillips - Manipulation Planning with Goal Sets Using Constrained Trajectory Optimization. PDF
Rex Tien - Collision-free and Smooth Trajectory Computation in Cluttered Environments. PDF
Robert Paolini - Learning from Experience in Manipulation Planning: Setting the Right Goals. PDF
Shervin Javdani - Trajectory Prediction: Learning to Map Situations to Robot Trajectories. PDF
Presentations
23 W 26 Nov Constraints Path Planning with Loop Closure Constraints using an Atlas-based RRT, 2011. PDF Lecture 14