On-Palm Dexterity: Dynamic Reorientation of Objects via Emergent Flipping and Sliding

Zhixian Xie,    Wen Yang,    Wanxin Jin
Arizona State University

Overview: We develop a real-time, contact-implicit model-based planning and control framework for highly dynamic, contact-rich manipulation tasks, such as object reorientation through flipping and non-prehensile sliding. At its core, our framework extends a recently proposed complementarity-free contact model to full dynamic settings, and integrate it into real-time contact-implicit model predictive control (MPC) for dynamic contact reasoning, followed by local velocity impedance control for robotic actuation.


Real-World Object Reorientation

Cube



Duck



Google Drive link: Click here



Method Overview


We develop a real-time control system that enables a robot to flip and slide objects on its palm—without needing predefined motions or contact plans.

At the core of our approach is a complementarity-free contact model, which calculates the contact force by examining the compression of the contact dual cone. This model is integrated into a model predictive control (MPC) framework that plans the robot’s movements.

Object Penetration in Dual Cone

Together, this system allows the robot to perform complex object reorientation tasks—like flipping a cube or sliding a duck into place—with speed, precision, and adaptability in both simulation and real-world settings.


More Simulation Results


180-Degree Dynamic Reorientation via Controlled Sliding

Dynamic Reorientation via Flipping




BibTeX

@article{TBD,
  author    = {Xie, Zhixian, Yang, Wen and Jin, Wanxin},
  title     = {On-Palm Dexterity: Dynamic Reorientation of Objects via Emergent Flipping and Sliding},
  journal   = {tbd},
  year      = {2025},
}