KABouM: Knowledge-Level Action and Bounding Geometry Motion Planner

Abstract

For robots to solve real world tasks, they often require the ability to reason about both symbolic and geometric knowledge. We present a framework, called KABouM, for integrating knowledge-level task planning and motion planning in a bounding geometry. By representing symbolic information at the knowledge level, we can model incomplete information, sensing actions and information gain; by representing all geometric entities--objects, robots and swept volumes of motions--by sets of convex polyhedra, we can efficiently plan manipulation actions and raise reasoning about geometric predicates, such as collisions, to the symbolic level. At the geometric level, we take advantage of our bounded convex decomposition and swept volume computation with quadratic convergence, and fast collision detection of convex bodies. We evaluate our approach on a wide set of problems using real robots, including tasks with multiple manipulators, sensing and branched plans, and mobile manipulation.