On planning for whole arm manipulation with switching contact modes

Abstract

This paper presents mathematical conditions and algorithm for a whole arm manipulation planning with switching contact modes. The motion planning for such a system should consider changing the dynamics and kinematics according to contact modes. We show the conditions about kinematic and dynamics aspects to be satisfied for the motion planning. The conditions give the restriction of feasible contact modes and the number of contact points. The planning problem is simplified using a randomized technique. We illustrate the approach by simulating the whole arm manipulation.