Manipulation in Clutter

(aka "Bin Picking")

Part 3

MIT 6.800/6.843:

Robotic Manipulation

Fall 2021, Lecture 10

Follow live at https://slides.com/d/6h86HX0/live

(or later at https://slides.com/russtedrake/fall21-lec10)

"Clutter clearing" (an early project at TRI)

Our (simplified) bin picking strategy

Acquire and preprocess point clouds from candidate bin
Sample and score candidate grasps (antipodal++ metric)
Gripper trajectory
Execute with Differential IK
Repeat until ??

What can go wrong?

STRIPS problem definitions

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_Research_Institute_Problem_Solver

An initial state;
The specification of the goal states – situations which the planner is trying to reach;
A set of actions. For each action, the following are included:
- preconditions (what must be established before the action is performed);
- postconditions (what is established after the action is performed).

PDDL = Planning Domain Definition Language

from https://www.cs.toronto.edu/~sheila/2542/s14/A1/introtopddl2.pdf

Example: Gripper task with four balls

There is a robot that can move between two rooms and pick up or drop balls with either of his two arms. Initially, all balls and the robot are in the first room. We want the balls to be in the second room.

Objects: The two rooms, four balls and two robot arms.
Predicates: Is x a room? Is x a ball? Is ball x inside room y? Is robot arm x empty? [...]
Initial state: All balls and the robot are in the first room. All robot arms are empty. [...]
Goal specification: All balls must be in the second room.
Actions/Operators: The robot can move between rooms, pick up a ball or drop a ball.

PDDL = Planning Domain Definition Language

(define (domain gripper-strips)
   (:predicates (room ?r)
		(ball ?b)
		(gripper ?g)
		(at-robby ?r)
		(at ?b ?r)
		(free ?g)
		(carry ?o ?g))

   (:action move
       :parameters  (?from ?to)
       :precondition (and  (room ?from) (room ?to) (at-robby ?from))
       :effect (and  (at-robby ?to)
		     (not (at-robby ?from))))



   (:action pick
       :parameters (?obj ?room ?gripper)
       :precondition  (and  (ball ?obj) (room ?room) (gripper ?gripper)
			    (at ?obj ?room) (at-robby ?room) (free ?gripper))
       :effect (and (carry ?obj ?gripper)
		    (not (at ?obj ?room)) 
		    (not (free ?gripper))))


   (:action drop
       :parameters  (?obj  ?room ?gripper)
       :precondition  (and  (ball ?obj) (room ?room) (gripper ?gripper)
			    (carry ?obj ?gripper) (at-robby ?room))
       :effect (and (at ?obj ?room)
		    (free ?gripper)
		    (not (carry ?obj ?gripper)))))

https://github.com/SoarGroup/Domains-Planning-Domain-Definition-Language/blob/master/pddl/gripper.pddl

PDDL = Planning Domain Definition Language

(define (problem strips-gripper4)
   (:domain gripper-strips)
   (:objects rooma roomb ball1 ball2 ball3 ball4 left right)
   (:init (room rooma)
          (room roomb)
          (ball ball1)
          (ball ball2)
          (ball ball3)
          (ball ball4)
          (gripper left)
          (gripper right)
          (at-robby rooma)
          (free left)
          (free right)
          (at ball1 rooma)
          (at ball2 rooma)
          (at ball3 rooma)
          (at ball4 rooma))
   (:goal (and (at ball1 roomb)
               (at ball2 roomb)
               (at ball3 roomb))))

https://github.com/SoarGroup/Domains-Planning-Domain-Definition-Language/blob/master/pddl/gripper-4.pddl

/// Base type for all action primitives
class ActionPrimitiveInterface
{
  virtual bool IsCandidate(const State& state) const = 0;
  virtual Container GetOutcomes(const State& state) const = 0;
  virtual double EstimateActionCost(
      const State& current, const State& target) const = 0;
  virtual Container Execute(const State& state) = 0;
  virtual double Ranking() const = 0;
};

OpenDishwasherDoor
CloseDishwasherDoor
StartDishwasher
LoadSoapPacket
PullOutLowerRack
PullOutUpperRack
PullOutSilverwareRack
PushInLowerRack
PushInUpperRack
PushInSilverwareRack

PutPlateInDishwasher
ReorientMug
PutMugInDishwasher
OptimisticPutMugInDishwasher
PutSilverwareInDishwasher
PushUnmanipulableDish
SenseDishCounts
SenseDishToManipulate

work by Calder Phillips-Grafflin et al. at TRI

DishTaskState(const DishState& active_dish_state,
              int32_t clean_items_put_away, int32_t clean_items_in_dishwasher,
              int32_t dirty_items_in_dishwasher,
              int32_t dirty_items_available,
              const DishwasherState& current_dishwasher_state);

DishState(const RigidTransformd& dish_pose, DishType dish_type,
          DishProgress dish_progress, RackRequirement rack_required);

DishwasherState(bool known, bool door_open, bool lower_rack_out,
                bool upper_rack_out, bool silverware_rack_out,
                bool lower_rack_full, bool upper_rack_full,
                bool silverware_rack_full, bool started, bool soap_loaded);

enum class DishType : uint8_t {
  Unknown = 0x00,
  Mug = 0x01,
  Plate = 0x02,
  Silverware = 0x03
};

enum class RackRequirement : uint8_t {
  Unknown = 0x00,
  LowerRack = 0x01,
  UpperRack = 0x02,
  SilverwareRack = 0x03
};

enum class DishProgress : uint8_t {
  Unknown = 0x00,
  Unmanipulable = 0x01,
  LikelyManipulable = 0x02,
  Sensed = 0x03,
  OptimisticOriented = 0x04,
  Oriented = 0x05,
  Placed = 0x06,
  Released = 0x07
};

work by Calder Phillips-Grafflin et al. at TRI

We replan before each action to handle unexpected outcomes...

Discrete vs Continuous State

Skills, Motion Primitives, ...

Feedback motion planning

1. approach, s.t. mug is in view.
2. visual servo
3. insert to grasp
4. retract
5. move to pre-place
6. place (force termination)

Picking up a mug (original, hand-crafted version)

work by Siyuan Feng et al. at TRI

1. general approach the plate, s.t. it's roughly in view for the wrist camera

2. visual servo for alignment

3. assuming known geometry and well alignment wrt the plates, close the fingers to the right amount, insert one finger tip between the plates.

4. push the top plate towards one side of the sink with the finger tip. (terminate with force)

5. kind of scoop the gripper into a solid grasp, while pushing onto the plate (terminate with force)

6. retract and go to pre-place configuration. 

7. insert to place. (terminate with force)