Things Are Made for What They Are: Solving Manipulation Tasks by Using Functional Object Classes

Abstract

Solving arbitrary manipulation tasks is a key feature for humanoid service robots. However, especially when tasks involve handling complex mechanisms or using tools, a generic action description is hard to define. Different objects require different handling methods. Therefore, we try to solve manipulation tasks from point of view of the object, rather than in the context of the robot. Action templates within the object context are introduced to resolve object specific task constraints. As part of a centralized world representation, the action templates are integrated into the planning process. This results in an intuitive way of solving manipulation tasks. The underlying architecture as well as the mechanisms are discussed within this paper. The proposed methods are evaluated in two experiments.