Manipulation
Non-prehensile Manipulation
Non-prehensile manipulation is manipulation without grasping, moving objects by pushing, sliding, pivoting, toppling, tossing, or rolling them. Because the object is not rigidly held, its motion depends on frictional contact mechanics, studied foundationally in Matthew Mason's work on pushing. It extends what a robot can handle to objects too large, flat, or heavy to grasp.
Why it matters for physical AI
Warehouses and homes are full of items that cannot be grasped directly, and learned non-prehensile skills like pushing and flipping greatly expand a manipulator's practical task coverage.
Build physical AI
Put these concepts to work on real hardware
Axol is a dual-arm robot built for physical AI — teleoperate it, collect demonstrations, and deploy learned policies out of the box.