Control scheme of nongrasping manipulation based on virtual connecting constraint

The research field of nongrasping manipulation is a maturing area in robotic motion control. However, the common principles of motion planning for nongrasping manipulation systems have not yet been established. This paper proposes the concept of virtual connecting manipulation as a generalized motion planning framework for nongrasping manipulation systems. As a preliminary result, we had previously realized a flower-stick juggling task called “propeller motion” using an actual experimental system. In this paper, we apply the virtual connecting manipulation concept to a flower-stick juggling task and analyze the generated motion from the view point of analytical methodology. We conduct a stability analysis of the generated cyclic motion of the flower stick by using a Poincaré map, and the analytical results show that the generated cyclic motion is asymptotically stable.