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This paper addresses an optimal control problem for a robot that has to find and collect a finite number of objects and move them to a depot in minimum time. The robot has fourth-order dynamics that change instantaneously at any pick-up or…
Robots have the capability to collect large amounts of data autonomously by interacting with objects in the world. However, it is often not obvious \emph{how} to learning from autonomously collected data without human-labeled supervision.…
When performing manipulation-based activities such as picking objects, a mobile robot needs to position its base at a location that supports successful execution. To address this problem, prominent approaches typically rely on costly grasp…
Understanding the customers' high level shopping intent, such as their desire to go camping or hold a birthday party, is critically important for an E-commerce platform; it can help boost the quality of shopping experience by enabling…
Nowadays, automation not only dominates industry but becomes more and more a part of our private, everyday lives. Following the notion of increased convenience and more time for the "important things in life", automation relieves us from…
The picking of one or more objects from an unsorted pile continues to be non-trivial for robotic systems. This is especially so when the pile consists of a granular material (GM) containing individual items that tangle with one another,…
The research and development of intelligent automation solutions is a ground-breaking point for the factory of the future. A promising and challenging mission is the use of autonomous robot systems to automate tasks in the field of…
Uncertainty in perception, actuation, and the environment often require multiple attempts for a robotic task to be successful. We study a class of problems providing (1) low-entropy indicators of terminal success / failure, and (2)…
Order picking is the process of retrieving ordered products from storage locations in warehouses. In picker-to-parts order picking systems, two or more customer orders may be grouped and assigned to a single picker. Then routing decision…
Assistive robotic devices can increase the independence of individuals with motor impairments. However, each person is unique in their level of injury, preferences, and skills, which moreover can change over time. Further, the amount of…
For various automated palletizing tasks, the detection of packaging units is a crucial step preceding the actual handling of the packaging units by an industrial robot. We propose an approach to this challenging problem that is fully…
Any sports competition needs a timetable, specifying when and where teams meet each other. The recent International Timetabling Competition (ITC2021) on sports timetabling showed that, although it is possible to develop general algorithms,…
Robots are increasingly working alongside people, delivering food to patrons in restaurants or helping workers on assembly lines. These scenarios often involve object handovers between the person and the robot. To achieve safe and efficient…
Human-robot collaboration has significant potential in recycling due to the wide variation in the composition of recyclable products. Six participants performed a recyclable item sorting task collaborating with a robot arm equipped with a…
In this survey we present different approaches that allow an intelligent agent to explore autonomous its environment to gather information and learn multiple tasks. Different communities proposed different solutions, that are in many cases,…
Shared control in assistive robotics blends human autonomy with computer assistance, thus simplifying complex tasks for individuals with physical impairments. This study assesses an adaptive Degrees of Freedom control method specifically…
We consider the task of autonomously unloading boxes from trucks using an industrial manipulator robot. There are multiple challenges that arise: (1) real-time motion planning for a complex robotic system carrying two articulated…
Imagine a robot that can assemble a functional product from the individual parts presented in any configuration to the robot. Designing such a robotic system is a complex problem which presents several open challenges. To bypass these…
Recent progress in robotic manipulation has dealt with the case of previously unknown objects in the context of relatively simple tasks, such as bin-picking. Existing methods for more constrained problems, however, such as deliberate…
Among the many anticipated roles for robots in the future is that of being a human teammate. Aside from all the technological hurdles that have to be overcome with respect to hardware and control to make robots fit to work with humans, the…