Related papers: Configuration Space Metrics
Manipulating deformable linear objects (DLOs) is challenging due to their complex dynamics and the need for safe interaction in contact-rich environments. Most existing models focus on shape prediction alone and fail to account for contact…
This technical report gives an overview of our work on control algorithms dealing with redundant robot systems for achieving human-like motion characteristics. Previously, we developed a novel control law to exhibit human-motion…
Wearable devices like exoskeletons are designed to reduce excessive loads on specific joints of the body. Specifically, single- or two-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) upper-body industrial exoskeletons typically focus on compensating for the…
Effective and fluent close-proximity human-robot interaction requires understanding how humans get habituated to robots and how robot motion affects human comfort. While prior work has identified humans' preferences over robot motion…
Most object manipulation strategies for robots are based on the assumption that the object is rigid (i.e., with fixed geometry) and the goal's details have been fully specified (e.g., the exact target pose). However, there are many tasks…
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…
The Fermat distance has been recently established as a useful tool for machine learning tasks when a natural distance is not directly available to the practitioner or to improve the results given by Euclidean distances by exploding the…
Motion planning is a key tool that allows robots to navigate through an environment without collisions. The problem of robot motion planning has been studied in great detail over the last several decades, with researchers initially focusing…
In order to enable physical human-robot interaction where humans and (mobile) manipulators share their workspace and work together, robots have to be equipped with important capabilities to guarantee human safety. The robots have to…
The usual Euclidean distance may be generalized to extended objects such as polymers or membranes. Here, this distance is used for the first time as a cost function to align structures. We examined the alignment of extended strands to…
This paper presents an approach for approximating the reachable space of robotic manipulators based on convex polytopes. The proposed approach predicts the reachable space over a given time horizon based on the robot's actuation limits and…
We define a volume function for a robot arms in 3-dimensional Euclidean space and give geometric conditions for its critical points. For 3-arms this volume function is an exact topological Morse function on the 3-sphere.
When studying robots collaborating with humans, much of the focus has been on robot policies that coordinate fluently with human teammates in collaborative tasks. However, less emphasis has been placed on the effect of the environment on…
Manipulating deformable objects arises in daily life and numerous applications. Despite phenomenal advances in industrial robotics, manipulation of deformable objects remains mostly a manual task. This is because of the high number of…
Robots need models of human behavior for both inferring human goals and preferences, and predicting what people will do. A common model is the Boltzmann noisily-rational decision model, which assumes people approximately optimize a reward…
Industrial manipulators do not collapse under their own weight when powered off due to the friction in their joints. Although these mechanism are effective for stiff position control of pick-and-place, they are inappropriate for legged…
Humans have the remarkable ability to use held objects as tools to interact with their environment. For this to occur, humans internally estimate how hand movements affect the object's movement. We wish to endow robots with this capability.…
To improve our understanding of connected systems, different tools derived from statistics, signal processing, information theory and statistical physics have been developed in the last decade. Here, we will focus on the graph comparison…
In this paper we propose an approach for efficient grasp selection for manipulation tasks of unknown objects. Even for simple tasks such as pick-and-place, a unique solution is rare to occur. Rather, multiple candidate grasps must be…
In many robotics applications, it is necessary to compute not only the distance between the robot and the environment, but also its derivative - for example, when using control barrier functions. However, since the traditional Euclidean…