Discrete Bimanual Manipulation for Wrench Balancing

Dual-arm robots can overcome grasping force and payload limitations of a single arm by jointly grasping an object. However, if the distribution of mass of the grasped object is not even, each arm will experience different wrenches that can exceed its payload limits. In this work, we consider the problem of balancing the wrenches experienced by a dual-arm robot grasping a rigid tray. The distribution of wrenches among the robot arms changes due to objects being placed on the tray. We present an approach to reduce the wrench imbalance among arms through discrete bimanual manipulation. Our approach is based on sequential sliding motions of the grasp points on the surface of the object, to attain a more balanced configuration. We validate our modeling approach and system design through a set of robot experiments.