Push-Wiper: Toward General-Purpose Robotic Cleaning across Varied Stains and Surfaces with Segmented Pushing Trajectories

The paper reframes viscous-stain cleaning as aggregation rather than repeated wiping. Push-Wiper uses a sponge to progressively gather material through segmented pushing trajectories, then detaches the aggregate and enables sponge self-cleaning. A Diffusion Policy generates adaptive action sequences, while an Arbitrary Surface Pose Interpolator (ASPI) and hybrid force-position controller execute them across different surface geometries. The abstract reports cleaning scores up to 130% higher than baseline methods, plus zero-shot transfer without additional training to solid residues, liquid spills, unseen viscous stains, and curved surfaces. These claims require verification against the full paper and experimental details.