Autonomous Manipulation of Deformable Linear Objects

The video shows the Autonomous Manipulation robot in action.
A Universal Robots' UR10 collaborative robot was controlled by a novel path planner which was able to reach all areas of a task-space while pulling a flexable hose through a narrow orifice, that could easily snag and lock-up inside the orifice if pulled at too tight an angle. Even goal positions set at 90 degrees relative to the orifice were no problem for this planner. Pulling the hose at angles around 45 degrees could result in pulling forces of over 60 newtons that could easily damage delicate parts such as wiring, deals or fibre optic cables.
Using this autonomous path planner however, the robot could reach these goas at 90 degress while keeping the pulling force below 5 newtons.