Related papers: Ergodic Exploration using Binary Sensing for Non-P…

Robotic search and rescue, exploration, and inspection require trajectory planning across a variety of domains. A popular approach to trajectory planning for these types of missions is ergodic search, which biases a trajectory to spend time…

We investigate the transduction of tactile information during active exploration of finely textured surfaces using a novel tactile sensor mimicking the human fingertip. The sensor has been designed by integrating a linear array of 10…

This paper proposes a theoretical framework for estimating a target-object shape, the location of which is not given, by using mobile distance sensors the locations of which are also unknown. Typically, mobile sensors are mounted on…

Ergodic control synthesizes optimal coverage behaviors over spatial distributions for nonlinear systems. However, existing formulations model the robot as a non-volumetric point, whereas in practice a robot interacts with the environment…

Prehensile autonomous manipulation, such as peg insertion, tool use, or assembly, require precise in-hand understanding of the object pose and the extrinsic contacts made during interactions. Providing accurate estimation of pose and…

We introduce a novel approach that combines tactile estimation and control for in-hand object manipulation. By integrating measurements from robot kinematics and an image-based tactile sensor, our framework estimates and tracks object pose…

Increasing the performance of tactile sensing in robots enables versatile, in-hand manipulation. Vision-based tactile sensors have been widely used as rich tactile feedback has been shown to be correlated with increased performance in…

We present an active tactile exploration framework for joint object recognition and 6D pose estimation. The proposed method integrates wrist force/torque sensing, GelSight tactile sensing, and free-space constraints within a Bayesian…

This paper proposes a method of estimating a target-object shape, the location of which is unknown, through the use of location-unknown mobile distance sensors. The direction of the sensor is fixed from the moving direction. Typically,…

We propose a new technique to help users to explore geometric shapes without vision. This technique is based on a guidance using directional cues with a pin array. This is an alternative to the usual technique that consists of raising the…

We are witnessing significant progress on perception models, specifically those trained on large-scale internet images. However, efficiently generalizing these perception models to unseen embodied tasks is insufficiently studied, which will…

Although a number of solutions exist for the problems of coverage, search and target localization---commonly addressed separately---whether there exists a unified strategy that addresses these objectives in a coherent manner without being…

This paper develops KL-Ergodic Exploration from Equilibrium ($\text{KL-E}^3$), a method for robotic systems to integrate stability into actively generating informative measurements through ergodic exploration. Ergodic exploration enables…

Inspired by humans' ability to perceive the surface texture of unfamiliar objects without relying on vision, the sense of touch can play a crucial role in robots exploring the environment, particularly in scenes where vision is difficult to…

Robots struggle to understand object properties like shape, material, and semantics due to limited prior knowledge, hindering manipulation in unstructured environments. In contrast, humans learn these properties through interactive…

We propose a method that simultaneously estimates and controls extrinsic contact with tactile feedback. The method enables challenging manipulation tasks that require controlling light forces and accurate motions in contact, such as…

Tactile recognition of 3D objects remains a challenging task. Compared to 2D shapes, the complex geometry of 3D surfaces requires richer tactile signals, more dexterous actions, and more advanced encoding techniques. In this work, we…

In this work we study the problem of exploring surfaces and building compact 3D representations of the environment surrounding a robot through active perception. We propose an online probabilistic framework that merges visual and tactile…

This paper addresses the localization of contacts of an unknown grasped rigid object with its environment, i.e., extrinsic to the robot. We explore the key role that distributed tactile sensing plays in localizing contacts external to the…

Advancements in surface haptics technology have given rise to the development of interactive applications displaying tactile content on touch surfaces such as images, signs, diagrams, plots, charts, graphs, maps, networks, and tables. In…