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arXiv · 1904.02223

Learning Physics-Based Manipulation in Clutter: Combining Image-Based Generalization and Look-Ahead Planning

Wissam Bejjani·Mehmet R. Dogar·Matteo Leonetti
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Abstract

Physics-based manipulation in clutter involves complex interaction between multiple objects. In this paper, we consider the problem of learning, from interaction in a physics simulator, manipulation skills to solve this multi-step sequential decision making problem in the real world. Our approach has two key properties: (i) the ability to generalize and transfer manipulation skills (over the type, shape, and number of objects in the scene) using an abstract image-based representation that enables a neural network to learn useful features; and (ii) the ability to perform look-ahead planning in the image space using a physics simulator, which is essential for such multi-step problems. We show, in sets of simulated and real-world experiments (video available on https://youtu.be/EmkUQfyvwkY), that by learning to evaluate actions in an abstract image-based representation of the real world, the robot can generalize and adapt to the object shapes in challenging real-world environments.

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Wissam Bejjani, Mehmet R. Dogar, Matteo Leonetti. 2019-04-03. Learning Physics-Based Manipulation in Clutter: Combining Image-Based Generalization and Look-Ahead Planning. https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.02223

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