Unfolding of a rectangular cloth based on action selection depending on recognition uncertainty

Abstract

We propose a method for unfolding a rectangular cloth placed on a table in an arbitrary unarranged shape, using a dual arm robot. There are many situations where the manipulation of fabric products by dual arm robots takes time due to operation complexity. Also, observation of fabric products in unarranged shapes can to be fraught with uncertainty, posing further difficulties for robotic manipulation. In this article, we addressed these problems for our specific task, implementing a "pinch and slide motion" to address the former issue, and an operation selection mechanism based on partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) to address the latter. We used this approach to let a robot unfold a rectangular cloth, thereby experimentally verifying the effectiveness of our proposal.