Related papers: Sim2real gap is non-monotonic with robot complexit…
In this paper we propose a novel approach to generate a synthetic aerial dataset for application in UAV monitoring. We propose to accentuate shape-based object representation by applying texture randomization. A diverse dataset with…
The application of granular jamming in soft robotics is a recent and promising new technology offer exciting possibilities for creating higher performance robotic devices. Granular jamming is achieved via the application of a vacuum…
Sim2real transfer has received increasing attention lately due to the success of learning robotic tasks in simulation end-to-end. While there has been a lot of progress in transferring vision-based navigation policies, the existing sim2real…
Computational design can excite the full potential of soft robotics that has the drawbacks of being highly nonlinear from material, structure, and contact. Up to date, enthusiastic research interests have been demonstrated for individual…
Simulation-to-real transfer using domain randomization for robot control often relies on low-gear-ratio, backdrivable actuators, but these approaches break down when the sim-to-real gap widens. Inspired by the traditional PID controller, we…
Designing robot morphologies and kinematics has traditionally relied on human intuition, with little systematic foundation. Motion-design co-optimization offers a promising path toward automation, but two major challenges remain: (i) the…
Recently simulation methods have been developed for optical tactile sensors to enable the Sim2Real learning, i.e., firstly training models in simulation before deploying them on the real robot. However, some artefacts in the real objects…
Flapping flight and swimming are increasingly studied both due to their intrinsic scientific richness and their applicability to novel robotic systems. Strip theory is often applied to flapping wings, but such modeling is only rigorously…
Soft robots have proven to outperform traditional robots in applications related to propagation in geometrically constrained environments. Designing these robots and their controllers is an intricate task, since their building materials…
Navigation functions provide both path and motion planning, which can be used to ensure obstacle avoidance and convergence in the sphere world. When dealing with complex and realistic scenarios, constructing a transformation to the sphere…
Achieving both agile maneuverability and high energy efficiency in aerial robots, particularly in dynamic wind environments, remains challenging. Conventional thruster-powered systems offer agility but suffer from high energy consumption,…
Teaching robots dexterous manipulation skills often requires collecting hundreds of demonstrations using wearables or teleoperation, a process that is challenging to scale. Videos of human-object interactions are easier to collect and…
This work proposes a novel transformation termed the conformal navigation transformation to achieve collision-free navigation of a robot in a workspace populated with arbitrary polygonal obstacles. The properties of the conformal navigation…
Accurate estimation of aerodynamic forces is essential for advancing the control, modeling, and design of flapping-wing aerial robots with dynamic morphing capabilities. In this paper, we investigate two distinct methodologies for force…
High-fidelity physics simulation is essential for scalable robotic learning, but the sim-to-real gap persists, especially for tasks involving complex, dynamic, and discontinuous interactions like physical contacts. Explicit system…
The main challenge in learning image-conditioned robotic policies is acquiring a visual representation conducive to low-level control. Due to the high dimensionality of the image space, learning a good visual representation requires a…
Training control policies in simulation is more appealing than on real robots directly, as it allows for exploring diverse states in an efficient manner. Yet, robot simulators inevitably exhibit disparities from the real-world…
When limited by their own morphologies, humans and some species of animals have the remarkable ability to use objects from the environment toward accomplishing otherwise impossible tasks. Robots might similarly unlock a range of additional…
Many organisms, including various species of spiders and caterpillars, change their shape to switch gaits and adapt to different environments. Recent technological advances, ranging from stretchable circuits to highly deformable soft…
What if a robot could rethink its own morphological representation to better meet the demands of diverse tasks? Most robotic systems today treat their physical form as a fixed constraint rather than an adaptive resource, forcing the same…