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The Geometric Nature of Deformable Object Manipulation

Objective

Manipulating deformable objects, such as cables, garments, bags, sponges, or food items, is an essential and recurring part of human daily routines. We interact with such objects with seamless ease, usually unaware of the complex perception, planning, and control machinery naturally provided by our brain and body to do so. In contrast, the ability to robustly manipulate deformable objects remains a critical frontier in robotics, often being considered as one of the most important challenges in robotic manipulation.

The tenet of GEOMANIP is that the key to a revolution in robotic manipulation of deformable objects will come from rethinking their representations to uncover and exploit their fundamental geometric nature. GEOMANIP proposes a paradigm shift that integrates the differential geometric structure of deformable objects into novel continuum physics-inspired neural representations. Specifically, we will build upon the differential geometry underlying the governing principles of continuum mechanics to design a new class of physics-inspired neural networks that generalize across a broad spectrum of deformable object types, structures, and properties. These representations will serve as the bedrock of a novel physically-grounded manipulation pipeline including perception, policy learning, and control, providing robots with advanced abilities to autonomously manipulate a wide variety of deformable objects. By uncovering the geometric nature of deformable object manipulation, GEOMANIP will reconcile the accuracy and generalizability of continuum mechanics with the expressivity and versatility of data-driven deep learning architectures, thus overcoming one significant and long-standing barrier in robotics.

Keywords

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Topic(s)

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HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2026-STG

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Host institution

KUNGLIGA TEKNISKA HOEGSKOLAN
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 500 000,00
Address
BRINELLVAGEN 8
100 44 Stockholm
Sweden

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Region
Östra Sverige Stockholm Stockholms län
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 500 000,00

Beneficiaries (1)