A Framework for the Integration of Coarse Sensing Information and Environmental Constraints*

A series of previous work has found that the environmental constraint (EC), which is the natural result of the contact of the robot and the interacting objects, is immensely helpful for the realization of high-precision robotic tasks. However, due to the existence of multifarious errors, such as mechanical error, modeling error and sensing error, there would be discrepancy between the actual constraints and the ideal models. In such case, it is hard to realize manipulation with EC-based strategies. Inspired by human, a preliminary framework which aims at the integration of the coarse sensing information and the environmental constraints is proposed for robotic manipulation. By mapping the sensing information into the new space, where the environmental constraint can be formally described, the region that integrates the sensing information and the environmental constraint is constructed and the conditions to achieve high-precision manipulation are derived. Based on the conditions, a motion planning strategy is proposed to achieve the required task. The effectiveness of this strategy is verified by case studies.