An interactive simulator for deformable linear objects manipulation planning

Manipulation of Deformable Linear Objects is a difficult task for robots in real environments due to requiring high computational power in order of predict accurately the object's deformation. Taking advantage on the proliferation of cheap and easy to use 3D environment simulation engines, in this paper we propose a method for manipulation planning of deformable linear objects which uses a physics simulation engine predicting the object behavior, and calculate possible outcomes for the manipulation. We implemented a system designed to generate a plan with the necessary actions to carry out in order to bring a deformable linear object from a configuration to another. In our system, a planner simulates the object's behavior when being manipulated and choses the most suitable action to perform. All the processing is done in an interactive way, being possible to interact in real time with the simulated object to correct the manipulations or insert additional objects to the environment. Our method enables such complex manipulation in order to manipulate the objects efficiently and generate accurate plans. Also, it offers other secondary contributions like fast sample database creation for automatic training methods and fast initial gripping point selection.