Related papers: Autonomous Functional Locomotion in a Tendon-Drive…

Tendon-driven continuum robots offer intrinsically safe and contact-rich interactions owing to their kinematic redundancy and structural compliance. However, their perception often depends on external sensors, which increase hardware…

Tissue manipulation is a frequently used fundamental subtask of any surgical procedures, and in some cases it may require the involvement of a surgeon's assistant. The complex dynamics of soft tissue as an unstructured environment is one of…

Enabling bipedal walking robots to learn how to maneuver over highly uneven, dynamically changing terrains is challenging due to the complexity of robot dynamics and interacted environments. Recent advancements in learning from…

Human navigation is facilitated through the association of actions with landmarks, tapping into our ability to recognize salient features in our environment. Consequently, navigational instructions for humans can be extremely concise, such…

Soft robots - due to their intrinsic flexibility of the body - can adaptively navigate unstructured environments. One of the most popular locomotion gaits that has been implemented in soft robots is undulation. The undulation motion in soft…

By the recent spread of machine learning in the robotics field, a humanoid that can act, perceive, and learn in the real world through contact with the environment needs to be developed. In this study, as one of the choices, we propose a…

Achieving effective locomotion on diverse terrestrial substrates can require subtle changes of limb kinematics. Biologically inspired legged robots (physical models of organisms) have shown impressive mobility on hard ground but suffer…

For legged robots to match the athletic capabilities of humans and animals, they must not only produce robust periodic walking and running, but also seamlessly switch between nominal locomotion gaits and more specialized transient…

Crawling is a common locomotion mechanism in soft robots and nonskeletal animals. In this work we propose modeling soft-robotic legged locomotion by approximating it with an equivalent articulated robot with elastic joints. For concreteness…

Tendon-driven robotic hands offer unparalleled dexterity for manipulation tasks, but learning control policies for such systems presents unique challenges. Unlike joint-actuated robotic hands, tendon-driven systems lack a direct one-to-one…

Robotic manipulators are widely used in various industries for complex and repetitive tasks. However, they remain vulnerable to unexpected hardware failures. In this study, we address the challenge of enabling a robotic manipulator to…

Even though intelligent systems such as Siri or Google Assistant are enjoyable (and useful) dialog partners, users can only access predefined functionality. Enabling end-users to extend the functionality of intelligent systems will be the…

Serially connected robots are promising candidates for performing tasks in confined spaces such as search-and-rescue in large-scale disasters. Such robots are typically limbless, and we hypothesize that the addition of limbs could improve…

Many technical solutions are bio-inspired. Octopus-inspired robotic arms belong to continuum robots which are used in minimally invasive surgery or for technical system restoration in areas difficult-toaccess. Continuum robot missions are…

The common approach for local navigation on challenging environments with legged robots requires path planning, path following and locomotion, which usually requires a locomotion control policy that accurately tracks a commanded velocity.…

For the deployment of legged robots in real-world environments, it is essential to develop robust locomotion control methods for challenging terrains that may exhibit unexpected deformability and irregularity. In this paper, we explore the…

Model generalization of the underlying dynamics is critical for achieving data efficiency when learning for robot control. This paper proposes a novel approach for learning dynamics leveraging the symmetry in the underlying robotic system,…

As mobile robots become useful performing everyday tasks in complex real-world environments, they must be able to traverse a range of difficult terrain types such as stairs, stepping stones, gaps, jumps and narrow passages. This work…

Modular robots can be reconfigured to create a variety of designs from a small set of components. But constructing a robot's hardware on its own is not enough -- each robot needs a controller. One could create controllers for some designs…

Legged robots navigating crowded scenes and complex terrains in the real world are required to execute dynamic leg movements while processing visual input for obstacle avoidance and path planning. We show that a quadruped robot can acquire…