Jumping on obstacles/platforms

[jakiroshah]

Hi All!

I am working on developing a planner for a biped that can perform a jump from one predefined elevated platform (e.g., a 3D cuboid) to another. From the tutorials and existing issues/discussions I understand that I must somehow use ResidualModelPairCollision to include the platform into the solver. Yet, I have been unable to do so.

Specific questions:

• From what I understand, both collision avoidance and contact with a 3D object can be modelled using ResidualModelPairCollision. If so, how does the solver know whether to avoid the object or integrate it so as to minimize cost?
• One option is that I simulate the jump on the floor without any platform (that is, run the code found in this tutorial), extract the forces from the base frame of the biped and simulate the consequence of their application onto a platform in Mujoco or PyBullet. However, this would mean discounting the dynamics interaction between the robot and the platform. Is there a way for the solver to accounting for the movement of the platform upon the execution of a jump action? That is, if the platform were not attached to the floor, would the output trajectory be conditioned on how the forces on the platform could be minimized so as to successfully jump from one platform to the other?

Thank you so much for taking time to look into this, I really appreciate your help :)