Contact: Frank van der
Stappen
Training systems for planning and mastering of delicate maneuvers or
complex manipulation tasks will only be successful if their users have the
impression that they are fully immersed in the virtual environment. The
response of the system to the user's actions should therefore be immediate as
well as physically realistic, which are two conflicting objectives.
Navigation (or motion) and interaction (often in the form of manipulation)
are key issues in virtual environments. We concentrate on planning and
simulation of motion and manipulation in complex environments. Examples are
power plants and oil platforms where navigation is rendered difficult by huge
numbers of often cluttered obstacles, and in medical applications such as
minimally-invasive surgery where the situation is further complicated by the
fact that the environment exhibits complex physical behavior such as
deformation. Motion planning and collision detection techniques are necessary
to plan and simulate these motions.
Motion is often not a goal in itself but a means of reaching a target area
where a manipulation task is to be performed, such as the assembly of a spare
part in a virtual factory or the removal of a tissue sample in virtual
minimally-invasive surgery. For realistic simulation of these tasks we apply
knowledge of techniques from robotics such as kinematics and the mechanics of
manipulation. Manipulation regularly affects the geometry of an object. These
changes in the geometry present interesting problems when combined with
sophisticated models of physical behavior.
The research in the group focusses on the following topics:
In virtual environments motion plays an important role. For example, in
maintenance operations in factories we want to use the CAD models to plan the
removal of malfunctioning parts, in large scale computer simulations there
are computer controlled entities whose motion needs to be planned, and in
games the motions of (large groups of) opponents must be determined. Such
motions need to be effective and natural to enhance the feeling of immersion
of the user/student/player. We study efficient algorithms to compute such
motions.
Computer-supported design of industrial part handling processes can lead to a
substantial cost reduction in automated manufacturing. We study efficient
algorithms for planning low-cost and robust solutions (which are based on
simple hardware elements performing simple physical action) to common part handling
tasks such as part feeding and singulation, grasping or fixturing, and assembly
and disassembly. We require our algorithms to be complete: they must find a
solution whenever one exists.
We have also studied manipulation in the context of surgery simulation. In
surgery simulation, physical actions such as cutting affect the
geometry of the object under consideration. This poses challenges when combined
with a need for realistic deformation.
webmaster: Frank van der
Stappen
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