Dynamic mobile manipulation—the ability of mobile robots to forcefully interact with their environments—remains a core challenge for deploying robots in human-centered spaces. This thesis investigates this challenge through a focused case study on dynamic pushing, where a dynamically balancing robot manipulates heavy or constrained objects via pushing. The goal is to derive insights that can inform the development of more adaptive and robust mobile manipulation algorithms and systems.

I’ll present two contributions in dynamic mobile manipulation using ball-balancing robots (CMU Ballbot and CMU Shmoobot). First, a compliant whole-body control framework for maneuvering nonholonomic carts like wheelchairs. Second, a generalizable non-prehensile pushing strategy for manipulating unknown objects that moves on a flat ground.