# Robust Planning for Multi-stage Forceful Manipulation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.00319 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.00319/

## Key facts

- Cited by 6 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 30 Jul 2022.

## Built on by (most cited first, 6 of 6)

- [Stabilize to Act: Learning to Coordinate for Bimanual Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.01087/) (2023)
- [Jacta: A Versatile Planner for Learning Dexterous and Whole-body Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.01258/) (2024)
- [RoboPARA: Dual-Arm Robot Planning with Parallel Allocation and Recomposition Across Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.06683/) (2025)
- [Cross-modality Force and Language Embeddings for Natural Human-Robot Communication](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.02772/) (2025)
- [AsymDex: Asymmetry and Relative Coordinates for RL-based Bimanual Dexterity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.13020/) (2024)
- [IMPACT: Learning Internal-Model Predictive Control for Forceful Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.10818/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Multi-step forceful manipulation tasks, such as opening a push-and-twist childproof bottle, require a robot to make various planning choices that are substantially impacted by the requirement to exert force during the task. The robot must reason over discrete and continuous choices relating to the sequence of actions, such as whether to pick up an object, and the parameters of each of those actions, such how to grasp the object. To enable planning and executing forceful manipulation, we augment an existing task and motion planner with constraints that explicitly consider torque and frictional limits, captured through the proposed forceful kinematic chain constraint. In three domains, opening a childproof bottle, twisting a nut and cutting a vegetable, we demonstrate how the system selects from among a combinatorial set of strategies.We also show how cost-sensitive planning can be used to find strategies and parameters that are robust to uncertainty in the physical parameters.