Implementation of Robotic Surface-to-Surface Object Transfer on a Quadrupedal Platform

This paper investigates robotic surface-to-surface object transfer, a release manipulation task in which a robot transfers an object from an end-effector that functions solely as a large supporting surface to an external surface such as the ground. Such transfers commonly arise in many practical manipulation scenarios. Unlike simple releasing actions, surface-to-surface transfer requires maintaining force equilibrium through controlled rolling and sliding at the contact interfaces. We present a manipulation model that captures the essential contact kinematics and enables force balance throughout the transfer. To assess robustness, we introduce a stability simulation framework that evaluates dynamic stability by monitoring variations in gravitational potential energy across object configurations. The proposed approach is implemented on a quadrupedal robot and validated through a series of experiments with objects of varying geometries. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the method and underscore the role of stability-aware control in surface-to-surface transfer.