Multi Contact

Multi-contact research focuses on modeling and controlling systems with multiple simultaneous contacts, crucial for tasks like dexterous manipulation and legged locomotion. Current efforts concentrate on developing efficient and robust models, including those based on signed distance functions and event-selected systems, alongside adaptive control methods like model predictive control with online learning to handle the inherent hybrid dynamics. These advancements are improving simulation accuracy and enabling real-time control of robots performing complex, contact-rich tasks, with implications for robotics, prosthetics, and human-robot interaction.