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The Robot Threw What It Never Grasped

A learned trajectory policy uses sliding and rolling contact to launch heavy, large or deformable objects beyond pick-and-place reach.

Published Updated Story ID: mp-2026-09-02-027
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Summary

A learned trajectory policy uses sliding and rolling contact to launch heavy, large or deformable objects beyond pick-and-place reach.

The policy plans joint-jerk trajectories without an analytical contact model, then uses system identification and uncertainty training for transfer. In simulation it reported 99% success, and zero-shot tests on a UR5e threw items up to 790 grams toward targets as far as 3.5 meters with 97% real-world success. Sensitivity remained high to dynamic friction, an important limit of the sliding release.

Why it matters

A learned trajectory policy uses sliding and rolling contact to launch heavy, large or deformable objects beyond pick-and-place reach.

Limits and context

No additional limitation was separately recorded.

Key claims

  1. A learned trajectory policy uses sliding and rolling contact to launch heavy, large or deformable objects beyond pick-and-place reach.

    Evidence: source-2026-09-02-016

Sources

  1. arXiv preprint 2609.00771arXiv · primary research

Corrections

No corrections have been recorded for this story.