Mobile Pedipulation for Object Sliding via a Wheeled Bipedal Robot

Yue Qin, Yanran Ding

Keywords: Loco-manipulation, nonprehensile manipulation, wheeled bipedal robot, model predictive control

Abstract: This letter presents a framework that enables a wheeled bipedal robot to perform the object sliding task using its wheels, with a focus on explicitly reasoning over stick-slip transitions. The proposed approach couples phase‑based offline trajectory optimization (TO) with an online model predictive controller (MPC), where the three rigid bodies with an object (TRBO) model is employed to jointly incorporate robot and object dynamics. Since stick-slip transition exhibits hybrid dynamics, the controller is designed to switch between dedicated sticking and sliding modes in an event‑based manner. Preliminary MuJoCo simulations with the Tron1 robot demonstrate reliable retrieval of a thin plate over a $0.4\text{m}$ displacement, validating the feasibility of the proposed pipeline. The framework enlarges the interaction capability of wheeled bipedal robots and offers an effective solution for the thin-plate object manipulation task which is difficult to grasp or push.

Submission Number: 15