  We present a controller for quasistatic robotic planar pushing with
single-point contact using only force feedback to sense the pushed object. We
consider an omnidirectional mobile robot pushing an object (the "slider") along
a given path, where the robot is equipped with a force-torque sensor to measure
the force at the contact point with the slider. The geometric, inertial, and
frictional parameters of the slider are not known to the controller, nor are
measurements of the slider's pose. We assume that the robot can be localized so
that the global position of the contact point is always known and that the
approximate initial position of the slider is provided. Simulations and
real-world experiments show that our controller yields pushes that are robust
to a wide range of slider parameters and state perturbations along both
straight and curved paths. Furthermore, we use an admittance controller to
adjust the pushing velocity based on the measured force when the slider
contacts obstacles like walls.
