BeyondContact: A Reinforcement Learning Framework for Airflow-Based Non-Contact Manipulation

Engineering notes

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Chinese explanation / 中文解读

中文解读待补充：本站会优先为 VLA、具身智能、人形机器人控制、机器人操作等高价值论文补充中文说明。

Original abstract

Contact-based robotic manipulation is constrained by end-effector reachability and the mechanical properties of objects. Airflow can exert forces without direct robot-object contact, enabling manipulation of objects beyond the reach or when direct contact is undesirable. However, the lack of suitable simulation has hindered the application of reinforcement learning to airflow-based manipulation, limiting the broader adoption of this mechanism compared with contact-based methods. To address this gap, we developed a robot- and task-agnostic airflow extension for Isaac Lab that supports massively parallel training. The extension uses experimentally identified airflow models to compute the forces and torques exerted on objects. Based on this extension, we train a hybrid push-blow (HPB) policy that combines contact-based pushing with airflow manipulation and a rectangular reorientation (RR) policy that controls a cuboid's heading using airflow alone. To enable physical execution, we design a lightweight, high-speed blower that coexists with a gripper. In zero-shot real-world deployment, HPB achieves an 80% success rate over 20 trials, while RR achieves a mean absolute heading error of 2.6 degrees across four target headings. The project materials are available at https://github.com/iit-DLSLab/BeyondContact.

Links and sources

• Official / arXiv page
• PDF from original source

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