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Contrary to the stunning feats observed in birds of prey, aerial manipulation and grasping with flying robots still lack versatility and agility. Conventional approaches using rigid manipulators require precise positioning and are subject…

We introduce a simple framework for learning aggressive maneuvers in flight control of UAVs. Having inspired from biological environment, dynamic movement primitives are analyzed and extended using nonlinear contraction theory. Accordingly,…

We discuss the problem of designing and implementing controllers for insect-scale flapping-wing micro air vehicles (FWMAVs), from a unifying perspective and employing two different experimental platforms; namely, a Harvard RoboBee-like…

A real-time motion training system for skydiving is proposed. Aerial maneuvers are performed by changing the body posture and thus deflecting the surrounding airflow. The natural learning process is extremely slow due to unfamiliar…

Typical drones with multi rotors are generally less maneuverable due to unidirectional thrust, which may be unfavorable to agile flight in very narrow and confined spaces. This paper suggests a new bio-inspired drone that is empowered with…

In this paper, we consider a general task of jumping varying distances and heights for a quadrupedal robot in noisy environments, such as off of uneven terrain and with variable robot dynamics parameters. To accurately jump in such…

Exploring planetary bodies with lower gravity, such as the moon and Mars, allows legged robots to utilize jumping as an efficient form of locomotion thus giving them a valuable advantage over traditional rovers for exploration. Motivated by…

Transferring human motion skills to humanoid robots remains a significant challenge. In this study, we introduce a Wasserstein adversarial imitation learning system, allowing humanoid robots to replicate natural whole-body locomotion…

This work presents an actuation framework for a bioinspired flapping drone called Aerobat. This drone, capable of producing dynamically versatile wing conformations, possesses 14 body joints and is tail-less. Therefore, in our robot, unlike…

This paper describes the modeling of a custom-made underwater glider capable of flexible maneuvers in constrained areas and proposes a control system. Due to the lack of external actuators, underwater gliders can be greatly influenced by…

A novel quadcopter capable of changing shape mid-flight is presented, allowing for operation in four configurations with the capability of sustained hover in three. This is accomplished without requiring actuators beyond the four motors…

This paper presents the design of Variable-Pitch-Propeller mechanism and its application on a quadcopter called Heliquad to demonstrate its unique capabilities. The input-output relationship is estimated for a generic mechanism. Various…

This work addresses the modelling and control aspects for quadcopter or drone unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). First, the mathematical model of the drone is derived by identifying significant parameters and the negligible ones are treated…

Data driven robotics relies upon accurate real-world representations to learn useful policies. Despite our best-efforts, zero-shot sim-to-real transfer is still an unsolved problem, and we often need to allow our agents to explore online to…

Airborne Wind Energy is a lightweight technology that allows power extraction from the wind using airborne devices such as kites and gliders, where the airfoil orientation can be dynamically controlled in order to maximize performance. The…

The Mini Wheelbot is a balancing, reaction wheel unicycle robot designed as a testbed for learning-based control. It is an unstable system with highly nonlinear yaw dynamics, non-holonomic driving, and discrete contact switches in a small,…

Humanoid robots have received significant research interests and advancements in recent years. Despite many successes, due to their morphology, dynamics and limitation of control policy, humanoid robots are prone to fall as compared to…

Reinforcement Learning (RL) has seen many recent successes for quadruped robot control. The imitation of reference motions provides a simple and powerful prior for guiding solutions towards desired solutions without the need for meticulous…

High-speed and high-acceleration movements are inherently hard to control. Applying learning to the control of such motions on anthropomorphic robot arms can improve the accuracy of the control but might damage the system. The inherent…

We present a methodology for fast prototyping of morphologies and controllers for robot locomotion. Going beyond simulation-based approaches, we argue that the form and function of a robot, as well as their interplay with real-world…