Related papers: Rope through Loop Insertion for Robotic Knotting: …
Robotic manipulation of slender objects is challenging, especially when the induced deformations are large and nonlinear. Traditionally, learning-based control approaches, such as imitation learning, have been used to address deformable…
This work presents KnotDLO, a method for one-handed Deformable Linear Object (DLO) knot tying that is robust to occlusion, repeatable for varying rope initial configurations, interpretable for generating motion policies, and requires no…
Loops are pervasive in robotics problems, appearing in mapping and localization, where one is interested in finding loop closure constraints to better approximate robot poses or other estimated quantities, as well as planning and…
The engineering space for magnetically manipulated biomedical microrobots is rapidly expanding. This includes synthetic, bioinspired, and biohybrid designs, some of which may eventually assume clinical roles aiding drug delivery or…
Using the cubic honeycomb (cubic tessellation) of Euclidean 3-space, we define a quantum system whose states, called quantum knots, represent a closed knotted piece of rope, i.e., represent the particular spatial configuration of a knot…
In the introductory courses on electromagnetism, the Biot-Savart law is generally explained by a simple example to find the magnetic field created at any point in space by a small wire element that carries a current. The simplest system…
Contact can be conceptualized as a set of constraints imposed on two bodies that are interacting with one another in some way. The nature of a contact, whether a point, line, or surface, dictates how these bodies are able to move with…
Developing practical quantum technologies will require the exquisite manipulation of fragile systems in a robust and repeatable way. As quantum technologies move towards real world applications, from biological sensing to communication in…
We propose a robotic manipulation system that can pivot objects on a surface using vision, wrist force and tactile sensing. We aim to control the rotation of an object around the grip point of a parallel gripper by allowing rotational slip,…
Highly constrained manipulation tasks continue to be challenging for autonomous robots as they require high levels of precision, typically less than 1mm, which is often incompatible with what can be achieved by traditional perception…
Magnetic robotics obviate the physical connections between the actuators and end effectors resulting in ultra-minimally invasive surgeries. Even though such a wireless actuation method is highly advantageous in medical applications, the…
A virtual knot, which is one of generalizations of knots in $\mathbb{R}^{3}$ (or $S^{3}$), is, roughly speaking, an embedded circle in thickened surface $S_{g} \times I$. In this talk we will discuss about knots in 3 dimensional $S_{g}…
In order to manipulate a deformable object, such as rope or cloth, in unstructured environments, robots need a way to estimate its current shape. However, tracking the shape of a deformable object can be challenging because of the object's…
New results on the groundstate energy of tight, magnetic knots are presented. Magnetic knots are defined as tubular embeddings of the magnetic field in an ideal, perfectly conducting, incompressible fluid. An orthogonal, curvilinear…
In this paper, we investigate the problem of enabling a drone to fly through a tilted narrow gap, without a traditional planning and control pipeline. To this end, we propose an end-to-end policy network, which imitates from the traditional…
Grasping mechanisms must both create and subsequently hold grasps that permit safe and effective object manipulation. Existing mechanisms address the different functional requirements of grasp creation and grasp holding using a single…
Shape change enables new capabilities for robots. One class of robots capable of dramatic shape change is soft growing "vine" robots. These robots usually feature global actuation methods for bending that limit them to simple,…
Robotic assistance allows surgeries to be reliably and accurately executed while still under direct supervision of the surgeon, combining the strengths of robotic technology with the surgeon's expertise. This paper describes a robotic…
We present a hierarchical framework to solve robot planning as an input control problem. At the lowest level are temporary closed control loops, ("tasks"), each representing a behaviour, contingent on a specific sensory input and therefore…
Current end-to-end deep Reinforcement Learning (RL) approaches require jointly learning perception, decision-making and low-level control from very sparse reward signals and high-dimensional inputs, with little capability of incorporating…