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Animals such as insects have provided a rich source of inspiration for designing robots. For example, animals navigate to goals via efficient coordination of individual motor actions, and demonstrate natural solutions to problems also faced…
Active optics techniques on large telescopes and astronomical instrumentations provide high imaging quality. For ground-based astronomy, the co-addition of adaptive optics again increases angular resolution up to provide diffraction-limited…
This paper presents a microfluidic device that implements standing surface acoustic waves in order to handle single cells, droplets, and generally particles. The particles are moved in a very controlled manner by the two-dimensional…
SONG aims at setting up a network of small 1m telescopes around the globe to observe stars uninterrupted throughout days, weeks and even months. This paper describes the fundamental aspects for putting up such a network and how we will…
Star trackers are state-of-the-art attitude estimation devices which function by recognising and tracking star patterns. Most commercial star trackers use conventional optical sensors. A recent alternative is to use event sensors, which…
The use of standard robotic platforms can accelerate research and lower the entry barrier for new research groups. There exist many affordable humanoid standard platforms in the lower size ranges of up to 60cm, but larger humanoid robots…
We present a conceptual design for a fiber positioning system for multi-object high-resolution spectroscopy, designed to be compatible with the upcoming large telescopes with a wide field of view. The design incorporates multiple…
This paper presents MicroRoboScope, a portable, compact, and versatile microrobotic experimentation platform designed for real-time, closed-loop control of both magnetic and acoustic microrobots. The system integrates an embedded computer,…
The science and origins of asteroids is deemed high priority in the Planetary Science Decadal Survey. Two of the main questions from the Decadal Survey pertain to what the "initial stages, conditions, and processes of solar system formation…
Numerous algorithms have been proposed to allow legged robots to learn to walk. However, the vast majority of these algorithms is devised to learn to walk in a straight line, which is not sufficient to accomplish any real-world mission.…
Our goal in this work is to expand the theory and practice of robot locomotion by addressing critical challenges associated with the robotic biomimicry of bat aerial locomotion. Bats wings exhibit fast wing articulation and can mobilize as…
This work presents a motion retargeting approach for legged robots, aimed at transferring the dynamic and agile movements to robots from source motions. In particular, we guide the imitation learning procedures by transferring motions from…
A robotic platform for mobile manipulation needs to satisfy two contradicting requirements for many real-world applications: A compact base is required to navigate through cluttered indoor environments, while the support needs to be large…
Tactile sensing on human feet is crucial for motion control, however, has not been explored in robotic counterparts. This work is dedicated to endowing tactile sensing to legged robot's feet and showing that a single-legged robot can be…
Generating safe motion plans in real-time is necessary for the wide-scale deployment of robots in unstructured and human-centric environments. These motion plans must be safe to ensure humans are not harmed and nearby objects are not…
Accurately measuring stellar ages and internal structures is challenging, but the inclusion of asteroseismic observables can substantially improve precision. However, the curse of dimensionality means this comes at a high computational cost…
Object placement is a fundamental task for robots, yet it remains challenging for partially observed objects. Existing methods for object placement have limitations, such as the requirement for a complete 3D model of the object or the…
Long range observations in the field of astronomy have opened up our understanding of the Solar System, the Galaxy and the wider Universe. In this paper we discuss the idea of direct in-situ reconnaissance of nearby stellar systems, using…
Fast moving celestial objects are characterized by velocities across the celestial sphere that significantly differ from the motions of background stars. In observational images, these objects exhibit distinct shapes, contrasting with the…
Biomimicry has played a pivotal role in robotics. In contrast to rigid robots, bio-inspired robots exhibit an inherent compliance, facilitating versatile movements and operations in constrained spaces. The robot implementation in…