Handling Uncertainties in Object Placement using Drop Regions

Abstract:
This paper addresses the challenge of pose uncertainties when placing an object onto both planar and complex support structures. The subset of SE(3) inside which an object can be dropped, while still satisfying the application constraints, is defined as its drop region. This paper presents a method for computing drop regions and two methods for determining the optimal drop pose within a region. The first method is based on a largest enclosing ellipsoid; the second method relies on kernel density estimation and also provides an estimate of the success probability of the placement.