Challenges and Outlook in Robotic Manipulation of Deformable Objects

TLDR

Deformable object manipulation is an emerging robotics problem that is far more complex than rigid manipulation and requires breakthroughs in hardware, sensing, modeling, planning, and control. The article reviews recent advances, highlights challenges in each subfield, and proposes future research directions. We conduct a review of recent advances across DOM subfields, focusing on deformation challenges. DOM enables greater robot autonomy and opens new applications in industry, services, and health‑care.

Abstract

Deformable object manipulation (DOM) is an emerging research problem in robotics. The ability to manipulate deformable objects endows robots with higher autonomy and promises new applications in the industrial, services, and health-care sectors. However, compared to rigid object manipulation, the manipulation of deformable objects is considerably more complex and is still an open research problem. Addressing DOM challenges demands breakthroughs in almost all aspects of robotics: hardware design, sensing, (deformation) modeling, planning, and control. In this article, we review recent advances and highlight the main challenges when considering deformation in each subfield. A particular focus of our article lies in the discussions of these challenges and proposing future directions of research.