High-speed catching based on inverse motion approach

In this paper, we consider a robotic catching task with the goal of achieving high-speed dynamic manipulation. We propose a catching strategy based on the inverse motion of a throwing motion with a high-speed hand/arm manipulator. Note that it is impossible to generate the catching motion directly using the inverse motion of the throwing motion because the inverse motion is merely a backwards-played version of the original throwing motion, which is generated from optimal calculations, whereas the catching motion needs to be generated depending on the trajectory of the ball. Therefore, we generate the catching motion by interpolating preliminarily calculated inverse motions with the trajectory of the ball. We show experimental results of a high-speed manipulator catching a ball in planar motion.