A Whole-Body Multi Contact Large Object Manipulation and Estimation Framework for Humanoids Using Skin Patches

Over the years, robotic manipulation has primarily focused on end-effectors, an approach that severely limits a robot's ability to manipulate large and heavy objects. Humanoids, which are expected to operate in human environments, must acquire this skill to enhance their versatility and usefulness. In this regard, we present a whole-body multi-contact manipulation (WBMC) framework to handle large and heavy objects. To facilitate WBMC, we incorporate artificial skin patches distributed across the humanoid's upper body which are effectively utilized for contact detection and force sensing. The WBMC manipulation problem is formulated as an optimal control problem (OCP) within a model predictive control (MPC) framework, and three different types of dynamic motions are used to evaluate the controller's effectiveness. The proposed framework manages the entire manipulation process, including reaching, grasping, picking up, and manipulating. Furthermore, these motions are leveraged to develop a two-stage object inertial parameter estimation framework. The first stage estimates the object's mass and center of mass, while the second estimates its inertia. Both the manipulation and estimation frameworks are numerically evaluated using the TALOS humanoid and a rectangular box in simulation, and their respective results are presented and discussed.