Go Fetch! - Dynamic Grasps using Boston Dynamics Spot with External Robotic Arm

We combine Boston Dynamics Spot
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with a light-weight, external robot arm to perform dynamic grasping maneuvers. While Spot is a reliable, robust and easy-to-control mobile robot, these highly desirable qualities come with the price that the control access granted to the user is restricted. Consequently Spot’s behavior must largely be treated as a black box, which causes difficulties when combined with a moving payload such as a robotic arm. We overcome the arising challenges by building a model of the combined platform, fitting the corresponding model parameters using experimental data and a straight-forward optimization framework. We use this model to generate control commands for the physical platform using trajectory optimization. We demonstrate that even with a simple model, and control trajectories deployed in a feed-forward manner, the combined platform is capable of executing grasping tasks in a dynamic fashion. Furthermore, we show how the platform can use the additional degrees of freedom of the legs to extend the reachability of the arm.