Estimating Model Utility for Deformable Object Manipulation Using Multiarmed Bandit Methods.

We present a novel approach to deformable object manipulation that does not rely on highly accurate modeling. The key contribution of this paper is to formulate the task as a multiarmed bandit problem, with each arm representing a model of the deformable object. To “pull” an arm and evaluate its utility, we use the arm's model to generate a velocity command for the gripper(s) holding the object an...