Related papers: ControlIt! - A Software Framework for Whole-Body O…
Optimal control (OC) using inverse dynamics provides numerical benefits such as coarse optimization, cheaper computation of derivatives, and a high convergence rate. However, to take advantage of these benefits in model predictive control…
Robowflex is a software library for robot motion planning in industrial and research applications, leveraging the popular MoveIt library and Robot Operating System (ROS) middleware. Robowflex provides an augmented API for crafting and…
Humanoid robots are capable of performing various actions such as greeting, dancing and even backflipping. However, these motions are often hard-coded or specifically trained, which limits their versatility. In this work, we present…
Robotic manipulators are essential for precise industrial pick-and-place operations, yet planning collision-free trajectories in dynamic environments remains challenging due to uncertainties such as sensor noise and time-varying delays.…
Flying robots such as the quadrotor could provide an efficient approach for medical treatment or sensor placing of wild animals. In these applications, continuously targeting the moving animal is a crucial requirement. Due to the…
Recent progress in legged locomotion has rendered quadruped manipulators a promising solution for performing tasks that require both mobility and manipulation (loco-manipulation). In the real world, task specifications and/or environment…
For safe and effective operation of humanoid robots in human-populated environments, the problem of commanding a large number of Degrees of Freedom (DoF) while simultaneously considering dynamic obstacles and human proximity has still not…
Soft robotics has advanced rapidly, yet its control methods remain fragmented: different morphologies and actuation schemes still require task-specific controllers, hindering theoretical integration and large-scale deployment. A generic…
Transferring human motion to a mobile robotic manipulator and ensuring safe physical human-robot interaction are crucial steps towards automating complex manipulation tasks in human-shared environments. In this work, we present a novel…
Modern, torque-controlled service robots can regulate contact forces when interacting with their environment. Model Predictive Control (MPC) is a powerful method to solve the underlying control problem, allowing to plan for whole-body…
Whole-body manipulation is a powerful yet underexplored approach that enables robots to interact with large, heavy, or awkward objects using more than just their end-effectors. Soft robots, with their inherent passive compliance, are…
General-purpose humanoid robots are expected to interact intuitively with humans, enabling seamless integration into daily life. Natural language provides the most accessible medium for this purpose. However, translating language into…
Thanks to recent advancements in accelerating non-linear model predictive control (NMPC), it is now feasible to deploy whole-body NMPC at real-time rates for humanoid robots. However, enforcing inequality constraints in real time for such…
With the accelerated development of robot technologies, optimal control becomes one of the central themes of research. In traditional approaches, the controller, by its internal functionality, finds appropriate actions on the basis of the…
Motion imitation is a pivotal and effective approach for humanoid robots to achieve a more diverse range of complex and expressive movements, making their performances more human-like. However, the significant differences in kinematics and…
This study presents a whole-body model predictive control (MPC) of robotic systems with rigid contacts, under a given contact sequence using online switching time optimization (STO). We treat robot dynamics with rigid contacts as a switched…
Generalist humanoid motion trackers have recently achieved strong simulation metrics by scaling data and training, yet often remain brittle on hardware during sustained teleoperation due to interface- and dynamics-induced errors. We present…
This paper presents aUToPath, a unified online framework for global path-planning and control to address the challenge of autonomous navigation in cluttered urban environments. A key component of our framework is a novel hybrid planner that…
We consider a nonprehensile manipulation task in which a mobile manipulator must balance objects on its end effector without grasping them -- known as the waiter's problem -- and move to a desired location while avoiding static and dynamic…
Mobile Manipulation (MoMa) of articulated objects, such as opening doors, drawers, and cupboards, demands simultaneous, whole-body coordination between a robot's base and arms. Classical whole-body controllers (WBCs) can solve such problems…