From snapping fixtures to multi-robot coordination: 
Geometry at the service of robotics 

Dan Halperin
School of Computer Science 
Tel Aviv University

Abstract:
Robots sense, move and act in the physical world. It is therefore natural
that understanding the geometry of the problem at hand is often key to 
devising an effective robotic solution. I will review several problems in 
robotics and automation in whose solution geometry plays a major role. 
These include designing optimized 3D printable fixtures, object rearrangement 
by robot arm manipulators, and efficient coordination of the motion of large teams 
of robots. As we shall see, exploiting geometric structure can, among other benefits, 
lead to reducing the dimensionality of the underlying search space and in turn 
to efficient solutions.