Hardware & control
Loco-manipulation
Loco-manipulation is the integrated performance of locomotion and object manipulation, in which a robot moves its own body while reaching, carrying, pushing, pulling, or otherwise controlling something in the environment. In humanoids and other legged robots, the task couples contact planning, balance, whole-body motion, and manipulation rather than treating walking and arm control as independent stages.
Also known as: loco manipulation, locomotion-manipulation, locomotion and manipulation
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Movement of the robot and object are coupled
The humanoid locomotion and manipulation survey defines loco-manipulation around both the robot's mobility and the movement of objects. Examples include walking while carrying a load, pushing a trolley, opening a heavy door or stepping into reach while maintaining contact.
The term is a specialised form of mobile manipulation. Mobile manipulation also includes wheeled systems and tasks that drive, stop and then move an arm. “Loco-manipulation” is used particularly for legged robots and often signals that locomotion and manipulation must be planned or controlled together.
Humanoids cannot isolate the arms from balance
An upper-body contact creates forces that travel through the torso and feet. Moving a load changes the centre of mass, available support and feasible foot placements. A controller may need to choose hand contacts, body posture and steps as parts of one problem.
Whole-body manipulation is related but not identical. It emphasises using surfaces beyond the hands, such as a chest or forearm, to control an object. Loco-manipulation emphasises movement of the robot itself during manipulation; one task can satisfy both descriptions.
The transition is part of the training record
GRAIL includes humanoid sequences for pick-up, whole-body manipulation, sitting and terrain traversal. Such data is most useful when it preserves the transitions between approach, foot placement, reach, contact, load transfer and recovery rather than splitting the task into unrelated walking and grasping clips.
A loco-manipulation episode should align base and joint state, foot contacts, hand state, object motion, actions, terrain observations and balance-relevant signals. The target embodiment and controller must also be recorded because a physically plausible trajectory for one humanoid may violate another robot's reach, payload or support limits.
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Related terms
Hardware & control
Locomotion
Robot locomotion is the process by which a robot transports its body from one place to another through physical interaction with its environment. Robots may walk, roll, crawl, hop, fly, or swim. For a humanoid, locomotion usually means coordinated legged movement such as walking, turning, stepping, climbing, or recovering balance.
Hardware & control
Robot manipulation
Robot manipulation is a robot's controlled physical interaction with objects or its environment to change or maintain their state. It includes grasping, carrying, pushing, pulling, inserting, wiping, folding, tool use, and other tasks performed through selective contact. Manipulation can use a gripper, hand, tool, arm, or another part of the robot.
Hardware & control
Mobile manipulation
Mobile manipulation is the coordinated use of locomotion and manipulation by a robot that combines a mobile base or body with one or more arms or other manipulators. Mobility expands the robot's reachable workspace, while the manipulator grasps, pushes, operates tools or makes contact; the base and arm may move separately or at the same time.
Hardware & control
Whole-body control
Whole-body control coordinates a humanoid’s full multibody state, actuated joints and environmental contacts to pursue several motion or force objectives while respecting constraints such as balance, joint limits and friction. It is a family of hierarchical or optimisation-based methods, not one algorithm; implementations may output joint positions, accelerations or torques.
Hardware & control
Humanoid robot
A humanoid robot is a robot whose body is modelled on the human form, typically with a torso, head and limbs, so it can move through human spaces or use human-scale tools and interfaces. The term describes morphology, not intelligence or autonomy; wheeled, partial-body and simplified-hand designs are also sometimes classed as humanoids, so the robot's actual configuration should be stated.