Manipulation planning for object re-orientation based on randomized techniques

This paper presents randomized manipulation planning for re-orientation of an object in order to achieve dexterous manipulation by a robotic multi-fingered hand. A key issue is to develop an efficient algorithm to search for feasible trajectories of a manipulation system between two arbitrary grasps. The reasons for this are that aspects inherent in manipulation planning have high dimensional search spaces and complicated contact constraints. The present manipulation planning technique is based on the generation of subgoals for object orientations and the connection between subgoals. The generation of a random orientation, which should take into account the physical features of a rigid body orientation in a three-dimensional space, is also discussed. Furthermore, simulation examples for manipulation planning are presented and discussed.