Reactive Whole-Body Control for Grasping Moving Objects with Mobile Manipulators

Abstract

Grasping moving objects remains challenging for fixed-base manipulators because their limited workspace prevents them from continuously tracking objects that move beyond their reachable area. This limitation is particularly important in human–robot collaborative scenarios. In this work, we propose a framework for grasping moving objects with a mobile manipulator that dynamically repositions its base to expand its reachable workspace and improve grasp feasibility. To coordinate the system motion, we adopt a reactive whole-body control strategy that treats the mobile base and manipulator as a unified kinematic system. As the object moves, the target pre-grasp pose is updated based on the estimated object pose, allowing the robot to track and approach a grasp-relevant target. The proposed method is validated in both simulation and real-world experiments, demonstrating the effectiveness of the unified control strategy for coordinated tracking and grasp-oriented motion generation when interacting with moving objects.