Related papers: Active Perception and Modeling of Deformable Surfa…
Gaussian processes are Bayesian non-parametric models used in many areas. In this work, we propose a Non-stationary Heteroscedastic Gaussian process model which can be learned with gradient-based techniques. We demonstrate the…
In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a robust motion formation distributed control algorithm for a team of mobile robots. The primary task for the team is to form a geometric shape, which can be freely translated and…
This project proposes a bioinspired multi-robot system using Distributed Optimization for efficient exploration and mapping of unknown environments. Each robot explores its environment and creates a map, which is afterwards put together to…
We develop an algorithm to explore an environment to generate a measurement model for use in future localization tasks. Ergodic exploration with respect to the likelihood of a particular class of measurement (e.g., a contact detection…
Robots rely on visual relocalization to estimate their pose from camera images when they lose track. One of the challenges in visual relocalization is repetitive structures in the operation environment of the robot. This calls for…
Graphical models are commonly used to represent conditional dependence relationships between variables. There are multiple methods available for exploring them from high-dimensional data, but almost all of them rely on the assumption that…
The increased demand for online prediction and the growing availability of large data sets drives the need for computationally efficient models. While exact Gaussian process regression shows various favorable theoretical properties…
Intelligent agents need a physical understanding of the world to predict the impact of their actions in the future. While learning-based models of the environment dynamics have contributed to significant improvements in sample efficiency…
Accurate human motion prediction with well-calibrated uncertainty is critical for safe human-robot collaboration (HRC), where robots must anticipate and react to human movements in real time. We propose a structured multitask variational…
In order to plan a safe maneuver an autonomous vehicle must accurately perceive its environment, and understand the interactions among traffic participants. In this paper, we aim to learn scene-consistent motion forecasts of complex urban…
Accurately modeling local surface properties of objects is crucial to many robotic applications, from grasping to material recognition. Surface properties like friction are however difficult to estimate, as visual observation of the object…
Autonomous vehicles are expected to navigate in complex traffic scenarios with multiple surrounding vehicles. The correlations between road users vary over time, the degree of which, in theory, could be infinitely large, thus posing a great…
Tactile sensors have long been valued for their perceptual capabilities, offering rich insights into the otherwise hidden interface between the robot and grasped objects. Yet their inherent compliance -- a key driver of force-rich…
We develop a computational method based on an Eulerian field called the "reference map", which relates the current location of a material point to its initial. The reference map can be discretized to permit finite-difference simulation of…
Tactile sensing in soft robots remains particularly challenging because of the coupling between contact and deformation information which the sensor is subject to during actuation and interaction with the environment. This often results in…
Real-time proprioception is a challenging problem for soft robots, which have almost infinite degrees-of-freedom in body deformation. When multiple actuators are used, it becomes more difficult as deformation can also occur on actuators…
We present a stepwise approach to estimate high dimensional Gaussian graphical models. We exploit the relation between the partial correlation coefficients and the distribution of the prediction errors, and parametrize the model in terms of…
Accurately digitizing physical objects is central to many applications, including virtual/augmented reality, industrial design, and e-commerce. Prior research has demonstrated efficient and faithful reconstruction of objects' geometric…
We introduce a data-driven method for learning the equations of motion of mechanical systems directly from position measurements, without requiring access to velocity data. This is particularly relevant in system identification tasks where…
Obtaining dynamic models of continuum soft robots is central to the analysis and control of soft robots, and researchers have devoted much attention to the challenge of proposing both data-driven and first-principle solutions. Both avenues…