Mobile manipulation problems involving many objects are challenging to solve due to the high dimensionality and multi-modality of their hybrid configuration spaces. Planners that perform a purely geometric search are prohibitively slow for solving these problems because they are unable to factor the configuration space. Symbolic task planners can efficiently construct plans involving many varia...

We examined whether social priming of cognitive states affects the inhibitory process in elderly adults, as aging is related to deficits in inhibitory control. Forty-eight elderly adults and 45 young adults were assigned to three groups and performed a cognitive control task (Simon task), which was followed by 3 different manipulations of social priming (i.e., thinking about an 82 year-old pers...

OBJECTIVES A computer based hand function assessment tool has been developed to provide a standardized method for quantifying task performance during manipulations of common objects/tools/utensils with diverse physical properties and grip/grasp requirements for handling. The study objectives were to determine test-retest reliability and convergent validity of the test protocol in people with ar...

This paper presents a motion planner that enables a humanoid robot to push an object on a flat surface. The robot’s motion is divided into distinct walking, reaching, and pushing modes. A discrete change of mode can be achieved with a continuous single-mode motion that satisfies mode-specific constraints (e.g. dynamics, kinematic limits, avoid obstacles). Existing techniques can plan well in si...

This experiment examined asymmetries in the execution of an object manipulation task that requires the coordinated use of both hands. To this end, twenty right-hand-dominant participants performed a bimanual object manipulation task, which required that they reach for and grasp two objects located on a tabletop, fit the two objects through a hole in a horizontally or vertically oriented fitting...

Although most part of the literature on manipulation systems deals with systems with as many degrees of freedom as the dimension of their task space, or even with more (redundant manipulators), kinematically defective manipulation systems are often encountered in robotics, in particular when dealing with simple industry{ oriented grippers, or when the whole surface of the manipulator limbs is e...

Insertion tasks are a major difficulty for automatizing manufacturing processes. The bench-mark problem in this category, peg-in-hole, is representative of the challenges that arise in uncertain assembly operations. Humans can carry out this task with ease, even in absence of visual information, relying on haptic and tactile sensing to align the peg with the hole. No generic control approach ex...

We present a manipulation planning framework that allows robots to plan in the presence of constraints on end-effector pose, as well as other common constraints. The framework has three main components: constraint representation, constraintsatisfaction strategies, and a general planning algorithm. These components come together to create an efficient and probabilistically complete manipulation ...

This paper presents a method to associate meanings to words in manipulation tasks. We base our model on an affordance network, i.e., a mapping between robot actions, robot perceptions and the perceived effects of these actions upon objects. This knowledge is acquired by the robot in an unsupervised way by self-interaction with the environment. When a human user is involved in the process and de...