# Dynamic Legged Manipulation of a Ball Through Multi-Contact Optimization

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.00191 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.00191/

## Key facts

- Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 1 Aug 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [Legs as Manipulator: Pushing Quadrupedal Agility Beyond Locomotion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.11330/) (2023)
- [Autonomous Navigation for Quadrupedal Robots with Optimized Jumping through Constrained Obstacles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.00773/) (2021)
- [Quadruped Locomotion on Non-Rigid Terrain using Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.02955/) (2021)
- [Collaborative Navigation and Manipulation of a Cable-towed Load by Multiple Quadrupedal Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.14424/) (2022)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The feet of robots are typically used to design locomotion strategies, such as balancing, walking, and running. However, they also have great potential to perform manipulation tasks. In this paper, we propose a model predictive control (MPC) framework for a quadrupedal robot to dynamically balance on a ball and simultaneously manipulate it to follow various trajectories such as straight lines, sinusoids, circles and in-place turning. We numerically validate our controller on the Mini Cheetah robot using different gaits including trotting, bounding, and pronking on the ball.