Prediction of action outcomes using an object model

Abstract

When a robot wants to manipulate an object, it needs to know what action to execute to obtain the desired result. In most of the cases, the actions that can be applied to an object consist of exerting forces to it. If a robot is able to predict what will happen to an object when some force is applied to it, then it's possible to build a controller that solves the inverse problem of what force needs to be applied in order to get a desired result. To accomplish this, the first task is to build an object model and second to get the right parameters for it. The goals of this paper are 1) to demonstrate the use of an object model to predict outcomes of actions, and 2) to adapt this model to an specific object instance for a specific robot.