We present a Virtual Kinematic Chain (VKC) perspective, a simple yet effective method, to improve task planning efficacy for mobile manipulation. By consolidating the kinematics of the mobile base, the arm, and the object being manipulated collectively as a whole, this novel VKC perspective naturally defines abstract actions and eliminates unnecessary predicates in describing intermediate poses. As a result, these advantages simplify the design of the planning domain and significantly reduce the search space and branching factors in solving planning problems. In experiments, we implement a task planner using Planning Domain Definition Language (PDDL) with VKC. Compared with conventional domain definition, our VKC-based domain definition is more efficient in both planning time and memory. In addition, abstract actions perform better in producing feasible motion plans and trajectories. We further scale up the VKC-based task planner in complex mobile manipulation tasks. Taken together, these results demonstrate that task planning using VKC for mobile manipulation is not only natural and effective but also introduces new capabilities.

中文翻译：

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移动操作的高效任务规划：虚拟运动链视角

我们提出了一个虚拟运动链 (VKC) 的观点，这是一种简单而有效的方法，可以提高移动操作的任务规划效率。通过将移动底座、手臂和被共同操纵的对象的运动学整合为一个整体，这种新颖的 VKC 视角自然地定义了抽象动作，并消除了描述中间姿势时不必要的谓词。因此，这些优势简化了规划域的设计，并显着减少了解决规划问题的搜索空间和分支因素。在实验中，我们使用带有 VKC 的规划域定义语言 (PDDL) 实现了一个任务规划器。与传统的域定义相比，我们基于 VKC 的域定义在规划时间和内存方面都更加高效。此外，抽象动作在产生可行的运动计划和轨迹方面表现更好。我们在复杂的移动操作任务中进一步扩展了基于 VKC 的任务规划器。综上所述，这些结果表明，使用 VKC 进行移动操作的任务规划不仅自然有效，而且还引入了新功能。