Manipulating deformable linear objects: robot motions in single and multiple contact points

The task of handling nonrigid one-dimensional objects by a robot manipulation system is investigated. Especially, approaches to calculate motions with specific behavior in point contacts between the object and environment are regarded. For single point contacts, motions based on generalized rotations solving the direct and inverse manipulation problem are investigated. The latter problem is additionally tackled by simple rotation and translation motions. For double and multiple point contacts, motions based on splines are suggested. In experimental results with steel springs, the predicted and measured effect for each approach are compared