Prakrut Kotecha∗1 Priyansh Sinha∗1 Nagamanikandan Govindan1
1 Robotics Research Center, IIIT Hyderabad, India
Mobile manipulators find applications in manufacturing, infrastructure inspection, and domestic services. While most mobile manipulators excel at pick and place, we aim to combine three distinct manipulation primitives: striking, pushing, and pick-and-place. This integration enables versatile object manipulation and expands the robot’s operational range. Furthermore, we propose a new attachment that can be easily fitted with most industrial two-finger grippers, capable of making line contact while pushing or striking an object. The proposed framework includes a high-level action sequence planner, dedicated offline planners for each manipulation primitive (Strike, Push, and Pick & Place), and a whole-body controller. Preliminary results from simulations and hardware experiments demonstrate the potential for diverse applications in the field of mobile manipulation.