TSL: tracking deformable linear objects for bimanual shoe lacing
Author(s)
Luo, Haining
Demiris, Yiannis
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Robot manipulation of Deformable Linear Objects (DLOs) in tasks such as Shoe Lacing (SL) is challenging due to the objects' high dimensionality. One of the key components to successful manipulation is accurate state estimation. Existing methods focus on the DLO itself without considering the interaction with the scene objects. The estimated DLO relation with the scene objects is an important factor in task planning. In SL, the shoelace and shoe relation decides whether the shoelace should be inserted, and the target eyelet for insertion. In this work, we propose an algorithm, Tracking for Shoe Lacing (TSL), which combines probabilistic registration with physical simulation, to preserve the topological relations between the shoelace and the shoe. Leveraging the physical simulation, it also identifies system anomalies during the tracking process. We propose two evaluation metrics: Sequential H-Signature, which qualitatively describes the shoelace-shoe relation to assess algorithm performance, and Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) distance, which quantitatively evaluates tracking errors against the groundtruth. The result shows that TSL achieves tracking error on a par with the state-of-the-art algorithm, and it is the only method that correctly estimates the shoelace-shoe relations across all experimental conditions.
Date Issued
2025-08-01
Date Acceptance
2025-06-02
Citation
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2025, 10 (8), pp.8212-8219
ISSN
2377-3766
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Start Page
8212
End Page
8219
Journal / Book Title
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
Volume
10
Issue
8
Copyright Statement
© 2025 IEEE. This is the author’s accepted manuscript made available under a CC-BY licence in accordance with Imperial’s Research Publications Open Access policy (www.imperial.ac.uk/oa-policy)
License URL
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2026-06-26