Flow Matching Imitation Learning for Multi-Support Manipulation (2407.12381v2)

Abstract: Humanoid robots could benefit from using their upper bodies for support contacts, enhancing their workspace, stability, and ability to perform contact-rich and pushing tasks. In this paper, we propose a unified approach that combines an optimization-based multi-contact whole-body controller with Flow Matching, a recently introduced method capable of generating multi-modal trajectory distributions for imitation learning. In simulation, we show that Flow Matching is more appropriate for robotics than Diffusion and traditional behavior cloning. On a real full-size humanoid robot (Talos), we demonstrate that our approach can learn a whole-body non-prehensile box-pushing task and that the robot can close dishwasher drawers by adding contacts with its free hand when needed for balance. We also introduce a shared autonomy mode for assisted teleoperation, providing automatic contact placement for tasks not covered in the demonstrations. Full experimental videos are available at: https://hucebot.github.io/flow_multisupport_website/