Manipulator

Computing a solution for the "Manipulation Planning Problem".

Compilation

Linux (Debian-based)

• Install the commands make, cmake and git

  sudo apt-get install build-essential cmake git-core

• Install the Qt framework and the CGAL library

  sudo apt-get install qt-sdk libcgal-dev

• Install LEMON (graph library): https://lemon.cs.elte.hu/trac/lemon/wiki/InstallLinux

• Change your current directory to clone Manipulator

  cd [dir]

• Clone Manipulator

  git clone https://github.com/Manipulators/Manipulator.git

• Go inside it

  cd Manipulator/

• Create a build directory

  mkdir build

• Go inside it

  cd build/

• Generate Makefiles

  cmake ../src/

• Build executable

  make

• Run executable

  ./manipulator

Development

The Qt framework provides a cross-platform C++ integrated development environment: Qt Creator. The IDE can use various build system including CMake. To run the project inside Qt Creator, the following instructions are helpful:

• Open Qt Creator
• Open the project with: File > Open File or Project...
• Choose the file CMakeLists.txt in Manipulator/src/
• Set the build folder location to Manipulator/qtcreator-build/
• Press button Run CMake to generate the Makefile
• Press keys Ctrl+R to build and run the project

Input

Describe screen size Describe obstacles in "Obstacles". One line by polygon, described with pairs of points.

Problems

To-do list

• Find the file format to describe the arguments (i.e. environment, robot, movable object, initial configuration and final configuration), this file format must be CGAL-friendly
• Create a command which takes the arguments and returns their graphical representation in a new window
• ...

Specification

• Generate an instance of the manipulation planning problem
  • Generate obstacles (i.e. environment)
  • Choose the radius of the circle robot
  • Choose the radius of the circle movable object
  • Select the initial configuration (i.e. positions of the robot and the object)
  • Select the final configuration
• Compute the solution for this instance
  • Compute the critical regions
  • Determine the topological properties of transit and transfer paths
  • Determine the manipulation graph
  • Find a manipulation path
• Display the main concepts for solving the problem
  • Display the representation of the instance of the problem
  • Display the critical regions
  • Display the manipulation graph
• Wrap the assembly into an graphical interface
• ...

Libraries

• Graphical user interface
  • GIMP Toolkit + (GTK+)
  • GIMP Tollkit -- (GTKmm)
  • Qt
  • Fast Light Toolkit (FLTK)
  • wxWidgets
  • Jules' Utility Class Extensions (JUCE)
  • ...
• Computational geometry
  • Computational Geometry Algorithms Library (CGAL)
  • Open Motion Planning Library (OMPL)

Qt and CGAL have been selected for the project since CGAL provides a package for displaying CGAL objects and data structures in the Qt Graphics View Framework.

##References

• B. Dacre Wright, J.P. Laumond and R.Alami
  Motion planning for a robot and a movable object amidst polygonal obstacles
  IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Nice, 1992

• J. Schwartz and M. Sharir
  On the Piano Mover III
  International Journal on Robotics Research, Vol. 2 (3), 1983