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Hauptverfasser: Lei, Maolin, Romiti, Edoardo, Laurenzi, Arturo, Dai, Rui, Vedove, Matteo Dalle, Ding, Jiatao, Fontanelli, Daniele, Tsagarakis, Nikos
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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Online-Zugang:https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.16069
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author Lei, Maolin
Romiti, Edoardo
Laurenzi, Arturo
Dai, Rui
Vedove, Matteo Dalle
Ding, Jiatao
Fontanelli, Daniele
Tsagarakis, Nikos
author_facet Lei, Maolin
Romiti, Edoardo
Laurenzi, Arturo
Dai, Rui
Vedove, Matteo Dalle
Ding, Jiatao
Fontanelli, Daniele
Tsagarakis, Nikos
contents Modular manipulators composed of pre-manufactured and interchangeable modules offer high adaptability across diverse tasks. However, their deployment requires generating feasible motions while jointly optimizing morphology and mounted pose under kinematic, dynamic, and physical constraints. Moreover, traditional single-branch designs often extend reach by increasing link length, which can easily violate torque limits at the base joint. To address these challenges, we propose a unified task-driven computational framework that integrates trajectory planning across varying morphologies with the co-optimization of morphology and mounted pose. Within this framework, a hierarchical model predictive control (HMPC) strategy is developed to enable motion planning for both redundant and non-redundant manipulators. For design optimization, the CMA-ES is employed to efficiently explore a hybrid search space consisting of discrete morphology configurations and continuous mounted poses. Meanwhile, a virtual module abstraction is introduced to enable bi-branch morphologies, allowing an auxiliary branch to offload torque from the primary branch and extend the achievable workspace without increasing the capacity of individual joint modules. Extensive simulations and hardware experiments on polishing, drilling, and pick-and-place tasks demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework. The results show that: 1) the framework can generate multiple feasible designs that satisfy kinematic and dynamic constraints while avoiding environmental collisions for given tasks; 2) flexible design objectives, such as maximizing manipulability, minimizing joint effort, or reducing the number of modules, can be achieved by customizing the cost functions; and 3) a bi-branch morphology capable of operating in a large workspace can be realized without requiring more powerful basic modules.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_16069
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Task-Driven, Planner-in-the-Loop Computational Design Framework for Modular Manipulators
Lei, Maolin
Romiti, Edoardo
Laurenzi, Arturo
Dai, Rui
Vedove, Matteo Dalle
Ding, Jiatao
Fontanelli, Daniele
Tsagarakis, Nikos
Robotics
Modular manipulators composed of pre-manufactured and interchangeable modules offer high adaptability across diverse tasks. However, their deployment requires generating feasible motions while jointly optimizing morphology and mounted pose under kinematic, dynamic, and physical constraints. Moreover, traditional single-branch designs often extend reach by increasing link length, which can easily violate torque limits at the base joint. To address these challenges, we propose a unified task-driven computational framework that integrates trajectory planning across varying morphologies with the co-optimization of morphology and mounted pose. Within this framework, a hierarchical model predictive control (HMPC) strategy is developed to enable motion planning for both redundant and non-redundant manipulators. For design optimization, the CMA-ES is employed to efficiently explore a hybrid search space consisting of discrete morphology configurations and continuous mounted poses. Meanwhile, a virtual module abstraction is introduced to enable bi-branch morphologies, allowing an auxiliary branch to offload torque from the primary branch and extend the achievable workspace without increasing the capacity of individual joint modules. Extensive simulations and hardware experiments on polishing, drilling, and pick-and-place tasks demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework. The results show that: 1) the framework can generate multiple feasible designs that satisfy kinematic and dynamic constraints while avoiding environmental collisions for given tasks; 2) flexible design objectives, such as maximizing manipulability, minimizing joint effort, or reducing the number of modules, can be achieved by customizing the cost functions; and 3) a bi-branch morphology capable of operating in a large workspace can be realized without requiring more powerful basic modules.
title A Task-Driven, Planner-in-the-Loop Computational Design Framework for Modular Manipulators
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.16069