Related papers: A Landauer Limit for Robotic Manipulation
The ability to accomplish manipulation and locomotion tasks in the presence of significant time-varying external loads is a remarkable skill of humans that has yet to be replicated convincingly by humanoid robots. Such an ability will be a…
Intelligent agents must be able to think fast and slow to perform elaborate manipulation tasks. Reinforcement Learning (RL) has led to many promising results on a range of challenging decision-making tasks. However, in real-world robotics,…
We propose to make the physical characteristics of a robot oscillate while it learns to improve its behavioral performance. We consider quantities such as mass, actuator strength, and size that are usually fixed in a robot, and show that…
Transmitting energy and information are two essential aspects of nature. Recent findings suggest they are closely related, while a quantitative equivalence between them is still unknown. This thus motivates us to ask: Can information…
Symmetry is a fundamental aspect of many real-world robotic tasks. However, current deep reinforcement learning (DRL) approaches can seldom harness and exploit symmetry effectively. Often, the learned behaviors fail to achieve the desired…
The generation of robot motions in the real world is difficult by using conventional controllers alone and requires highly intelligent processing. In this regard, learning-based motion generations are currently being investigated. However,…
Quadruped robots are usually equipped with additional arms for manipulation, negatively impacting price and weight. On the other hand, the requirements of legged locomotion mean that the legs of such robots often possess the needed torque…
Utilizing robotic systems in the construction industry is gaining popularity due to their build time, precision, and efficiency. In this paper, we introduce a system that allows the coordination of multiple manipulator robots for…
Molecular motors convert chemical energy into mechanical work while operating in an environment dominated by Brownian motion. The aim of this paper is to explore the flow of energy between the molecular motors and its surroundings, in…
This paper addresses the problem of robotic cutting during disassembly of products for materials separation and recycling. Waste handling applications differ from milling in manufacturing processes, as they engender considerable variety and…
We review the physical foundations of Landauer's Principle, which relates the loss of information from a computational process to an increase in thermodynamic entropy. Despite the long history of the Principle, its fundamental rationale and…
We develop a thermodynamic theory of algorithmic catalysis within the watts-per-intelligence framework, identifying reusable computational structures that reduce irreversible operations for a task class while satisfying bounded restoration…
We propose a simple theoretical model for a molecular chemical engine that catalyzes a chemical reaction and converts the free energy released by the reaction into mechanical work. Binding and unbinding processes of reactant and product…
Assistive robots enable people with disabilities to conduct everyday tasks on their own. However, these tasks can be complex, containing both coarse reaching motions and fine-grained manipulation. For example, when eating, not only does one…
A critical goal in robotics and autonomy is to teach robots to adapt to real-world collaborative tasks, particularly in automatic assembly. The ability of a robot to understand the original intent of an incomplete assembly and complete…
Machine learning plays a critical role in extracting meaningful information out of the zetabytes of sensor data collected every day. For some applications, the goal is to analyze and understand the data to identify trends (e.g.,…
This paper presents a combined task and motion planner for a robot arm to carry out 3D metal wire curving tasks by collaborating with a bending machine. We assume a collaborative robot that is safe to work in a human environment but has a…
Optical tweezers employing forces produced by light underpin important manipulation tools in many areas of applied and biological physics. Conventional optical tweezers are based on refractive optics, and they require excessive auxiliary…
In this survey, we present the current status on robots performing manipulation tasks that require varying contact with the environment, such that the robot must either implicitly or explicitly control the contact force with the environment…
Automating complex tasks using robotic systems requires skills for planning, control and execution. This paper proposes a complete robotic system for maintenance automation, which can automate disassembly and assembly operations under…