Papers for

warehouse automation operators

Papers whose findings have a practical use for this group, as judged from the abstract. Open a paper to read what it means in practice.

Robots coordinate precise collision-free actions for construction tasks

CAST: Collision-Aware Assembly with Construction Robots using Simultaneous Trajectory Estimation and Planning

Abstract: Multi-robot systems have shown increasing viability in construction due to their ability to execute high-precision actions while reducing human exposure to hazardous tasks. However, these environments have high-dimensional configuration spaces and possess substantial collision-avoidance constraints, which include other robots, assembly objects, and workspace boundaries. We utilize a single factor graph for trajectory estimation and planning that incorporates measured robot states together with explicit collision and learned cable constraints. This supports changing workspaces and enables synchronized, high-dimensional robot motion planning while accounting for the stiff, vibration-induced uncertainty of heavy robotic systems. We demonstrate the success of our framework on the construction of a post-and-lintel structure using one robot arm as a timber gripper, and a second robot as a nail-fastener.

Mon 21 SeptRobotics
The gist
Building things with robots is tricky because they must avoid bumping into each other, the materials, or walls. The authors created a system that helps multiple robots plan their movements all at once, making sure they don't collide while working together. They use measurements and special rules to keep robots steady even when they shake or vibrate. They tested their idea by having one robot hold timber pieces while another attaches nails, showing the robots can safely and smoothly build a simple structure.
Open 2609.24841v1

Robotic system ranks grasp options to improve placement success rates

Execution-Aware Pre-Execution Ranking for Grasp-Conditioned Robotic Placement

Abstract: A geometrically valid placement can still be difficult to execute because the selected grasp changes the required end-effector pose, collision geometry, and transport motion. Placement is formulated as a pre-execution ranking problem in which supplied grasp-placement candidates are scored before planning. The model combines a typed target-conditioned point cloud with three pose descriptors and hierarchical heads for planning success and execution success conditioned on planning. On a 30-object, 1,235-scene dataset with scene-group-held-out splits, three-seed top-1 success on covered test groups reaches 85.63 +/- 1.08% for joint selection and 79.84 +/- 0.16% for fixed-target ranking. For the designated frozen seed-42 checkpoint, top-1 success improves from 72.84% to 85.78% over full-pool cuMotion for joint ranking and from 59.65% to 79.67% for fixed-target ranking. Frozen transfer to xArm7/MoveIt requires no xArm-specific retraining. Across 27 locked cases, 13 complete end to end (48.15%). Of the 16 cases that pass Top-5 preflight and begin execution, 13 succeed (81.25%). Candidate-level deployment-feasibility prediction reaches 81.25% recall, 85.20% specificity, and 83.23% balanced accuracy.

Thu 17 SeptRobotics
The gist
Robots need to pick up objects and put them down without knocking things over or getting stuck. The authors found that even when a spot to place an object looks right, the way a robot grabs it can make the placement tricky to execute. They built a model that scores different grab-and-place choices before the robot tries them, helping it pick ones more likely to work. Testing showed this approach improves success rates and works quickly on a real robot without extra retraining.
Open 2609.19946v1

Multiagent pathfinding routing is fixed parameter tractable below sum distances

Routing Multiple Agents Below the Sum of Distances

Abstract: We study Transient Multiagent Pathfinding, a variant of the classical Multi-Agent Pathfinding problem in which a set of agents must be routed without collisions from designated start vertices to designated destination vertices in a graph. We analyze the problem within the above-and-below-guarantee paradigm of parameterized complexity. In particular, we consider the natural upper bound \(L\), given by the sum of the shortest-path distances between pairs of agents' terminals (corresponding to sequential routing of the agents). The parameterization is given by the gap \(ζ= L - λ\) between this bound and the target makespan \(λ\), together with the number \(k\) of agents. Our main result establishes fixed-parameter tractability for the combined parameter \(k + ζ\). Matching lower bounds show that parameterization by \(k\) alone is W[1]-hard, and that parameterization by \(ζ\) alone is W[1]-hard when terminals are not required to be distinct. On the positive side, if all terminals are distinct, the problem becomes fixed-parameter tractable when parameterized solely by \(ζ\). Finally, we show that Transient Multiagent Pathfinding is unlikely to admit a polynomial kernel when parameterized by \(k + ζ\). Together, our results provide an almost complete characterization of the parameterized complexity landscape of the problem for the considered parameters.

Wed 16 SeptData Structures and AlgorithmsDiscrete Mathematics
The gist
The problem studied is how to move many agents from their start points to end points in a network without bumping into each other. The authors focus on cases where the total time is less than the sum of shortest routes for each agent individually. They show that when considering both the number of agents and how much faster than the sum they want to be, the problem can be solved efficiently. Some parameter choices make the problem harder, but if all start and end points are different, it becomes easier. The authors also explain limits to how much the problem can be simplified.
Open 2609.18802v1