Fast Estimation of Globally Optimal Independent Contact Regions for Robust Grasping and Manipulation

-- This work presents a fast anytime algorithm for computing globally optimal independent contact regions (ICRs). ICRs are regions such that one contact within each region enables a valid grasp. Locations of ICRs can provide guidance for grasp and manipulation planning, learning, and policy transfer . However, ICRs for modern applications have been little explored, in part due to the expense of computing them, as they have a search space exponential in the number of contacts. We present a divide and conquer algorithm based on incremental n-dimensional Delaunay triangulation that produces results with bounded suboptimality in times sufficient for real-time planning. This paper presents the base algorithm for grasps where contacts lie within a plane. Our experiments show substantial benefits over competing grasp quality metrics and speedups of 100X and more for competing approaches to computing ICRs. We explore robustness of a policy guided by ICRs and outline a path to general 3D implementation. Code will be released on publication to facilitate further development and applications.