Studying the manipulation of deformable linear objects has significant practical applications in industry, including car manufacturing, textile production, and electronics automation. However, deformable linear object manipulation poses a significant challenge in developing planning and control algorithms, due to the precise and continuous control required to effectively manipulate the deformable nature of these objects. In this paper, we propose a new framework to control and maintain the shape of deformable linear objects with two robot manipulators utilizing environmental contacts. The framework is composed of a shape planning algorithm which automatically generates appropriate positions to place fixtures, and an object-centered skill engine which includes task and motion planning to control the motion and force of both robots based on the object status. The status of the deformable linear object is estimated online utilizing visual as well as force information. The framework manages to handle a cable routing task in real-world experiments with two Panda robots and especially achieves contact-aware and flexible clip fixing with challenging fixtures.

翻译：研究可变形线性物体的操控在工业领域具有重要的实际应用价值，包括汽车制造、纺织生产及电子自动化等。然而，由于这类物体的形变特性需要精确且连续的操控，可变形线性物体的操控对规划与控制算法的开发提出了重大挑战。本文提出了一种新框架，利用两台机器人操作器与环境接触来控制和维持可变形线性物体的形状。该框架包含自动生成夹具放置位置的塑形规划算法，以及基于物体状态控制两台机器人运动与力矩的物体中心技能引擎（包含任务与运动规划）。可变形线性物体的状态通过在线融合视觉与力信息进行估计。在双Panda机器人的真实实验中，该框架成功完成了线缆布线任务，尤其在极具挑战性的夹具场景中实现了接触感知与柔性卡扣固定。