Related papers: Structured contact force optimization for kino-dyn…
Planning for legged-wheeled machines is typically done using trajectory optimization because of many degrees of freedom, thus rendering legged-wheeled planners prone to falling prey to bad local minima. We present a combined sampling and…
Imitation learning is a promising approach for training humanoid robots to both walk and manipulate, but it requires a large number of demonstrations, which are time-intensive and difficult to collect via teleoperation. Existing…
Character animation in real-world scenarios necessitates a variety of constraints, such as trajectories, key-frames, interactions, etc. Existing methodologies typically treat single or a finite set of these constraint(s) as separate control…
Available possibilities to prevent a biped robot from falling down in the presence of severe disturbances are mainly Center of Pressure (CoP) modulation, step location and timing adjustment, and angular momentum regulation. In this paper,…
Robots must make and break contact with the environment to perform useful tasks, but planning and control through contact remains a formidable challenge. In this work, we achieve real-time contact-implicit model predictive control with a…
Controlling robots that dynamically engage in contact with their environment is a pressing challenge. Whether a legged robot making-and-breaking contact with a floor, or a manipulator grasping objects, contact is everywhere. Unfortunately,…
Humanoid robots are well suited for human habitats due to their morphological similarity, but developing controllers for them is a challenging task that involves multiple sub-problems, such as control, planning and perception. In this…
Robotic manipulation can greatly benefit from the data efficiency, robustness, and predictability of model-based methods if robots can quickly generate models of novel objects they encounter. This is especially difficult when effects like…
Traditional motion planning approaches for multi-legged locomotion divide the problem into several stages, such as contact search and trajectory generation. However, reasoning about contacts and motions simultaneously is crucial for the…
Legged robots have great potential to perform loco-manipulation tasks, yet it is challenging to keep the robot balanced while it interacts with the environment. In this paper we study the use of additional contact points for maximising the…
Coordinating a team of robots to reposition multiple objects in cluttered environments requires reasoning jointly about where robots should establish contact, how to manipulate objects once contact is made, and how to navigate safely and…
Generating a collision-free robot motion is crucial for safe applications in real-world settings. This requires an accurate model of all obstacle shapes within the constrained robot cell, which is particularly challenging and…
We present a novel motion generation approach for robot arms, with high degrees of freedom, in complex settings that can adapt online to obstacles or new via points. Learning from Demonstration facilitates rapid adaptation to new tasks and…
Swarm robotic systems utilize collective behaviour to achieve goals that might be too complex for a lone entity, but become attainable with localized communication and collective decision making. In this paper, a behaviour-based distributed…
Trajectory optimization problems for legged robots are commonly formulated with fixed contact schedules. These multi-phase Hybrid Trajectory Optimization (HTO) methods result in locally optimal trajectories, but the result depends heavily…
Contact-based decision and planning methods are becoming increasingly important to endow higher levels of autonomy for legged robots. Formal synthesis methods derived from symbolic systems have great potential for reasoning about high-level…
Performing highly agile acrobatic motions with a long flight phase requires perfect timing, high accuracy, and coordination of the full-body motion. To address these challenges, we present a novel approach on timings and trajectory…
We present a versatile framework for the computational co-design of legged robots and dynamic maneuvers. Current state-of-the-art approaches are typically based on random sampling or concurrent optimization. We propose a novel bilevel…
Inverse dynamics is used extensively in robotics and biomechanics applications. In manipulator and legged robots, it can form the basis of an effective nonlinear control strategy by providing a robot with both accurate positional tracking…
In hybrid force-velocity control, the robot can use velocity control in some directions to follow a trajectory, while performing force control in other directions to maintain contacts with the environment regardless of positional errors. We…