Related papers: Accurate Vision-based Manipulation through Contact…
When performing manipulation-based activities such as picking objects, a mobile robot needs to position its base at a location that supports successful execution. To address this problem, prominent approaches typically rely on costly grasp…
Manipulation of objects by exploiting their contact with the environment can enhance both the dexterity and payload capability of robotic manipulators. A common way to manipulate heavy objects beyond the payload capability of a robot is to…
This paper presents a novel manipulation strategy that uses keypoint correspondences extracted from visuo-tactile sensor images to facilitate precise object manipulation. Our approach uses the visuo-tactile feedback to guide the robot's…
We propose a method for planning motion for robots with actuation uncertainty that incorporates contact with the environment and the compliance of the robot to reliably perform manipulation tasks. Our approach consists of two stages: (1)…
A complex visual navigation task puts an agent in different situations which call for a diverse range of visual perception abilities. For example, to "go to the nearest chair", the agent might need to identify a chair in a living room using…
This paper delves into various robotic manipulation control methods designed for dynamic contact tooling operations on a robotic repair platform. The explored control strategies include hybrid position-force control, admittance control,…
We study the problem of optimal oculomotor control during the execution of visual search tasks. We introduce a computational model of human eye movements, which takes into account various constraints of the human visual and oculomotor…
Human-robot collaboration (HRC) requires robots to adapt their motions to human intent to ensure safe and efficient cooperation in shared spaces. Although large language models (LLMs) provide high-level reasoning for inferring human intent,…
Motion planning and obstacle avoidance is a key challenge in robotics applications. While previous work succeeds to provide excellent solutions for known environments, sensor-based motion planning in new and dynamic environments remains…
Active perception in vision-based robotic manipulation aims to move the camera toward more informative observation viewpoints, thereby providing high-quality perceptual inputs for downstream tasks. Most existing active perception methods…
A key challenge in intelligent robotics is creating robots that are capable of directly interacting with the world around them to achieve their goals. The last decade has seen substantial growth in research on the problem of robot…
A mobile manipulator often finds itself in an application where it needs to take a close-up view before performing a manipulation task. Named this as a coupled active perception and manipulation (CAPM) problem, we model the uncertainty in…
Robot control through contact is challenging as it requires reasoning over long horizons and discontinuous system dynamics. Highly dynamic tasks such as Air Hockey additionally require agile behavior, making the corresponding optimal…
This thesis is concerned with deriving planning algorithms for robot manipulators. Manipulation has two effects, the robot has a physical effect on the object, and it also acquires information about the object. This thesis presents…
Use of physics-based simulation as a planning model enables a planner to reason and generate plans that involve non-trivial interactions with the world. For example, grasping a milk container out of a cluttered refrigerator may involve…
Robotic manipulation research has investigated contact-rich problems and strategies that require robots to intentionally collide with their environment, to accomplish tasks that cannot be handled by traditional collision-free solutions. By…
An important feature of pervasive, intelligent assistance systems is the ability to dynamically adapt to the current needs of their users. Hence, it is critical for such systems to be able to recognize those goals and needs based on…
Physical reasoning is a core aspect of intelligence in animals and humans. A central question is what model should be used as a basis for reasoning. Existing work considered models ranging from intuitive physics and physical simulators to…
In this work, we build on our method for manipulating unknown objects via contact configuration regulation: the estimation and control of the location, geometry, and mode of all contacts between the robot, object, and environment. We…
Robot motion planning involves computing a sequence of valid robot configurations that take the robot from its initial state to a goal state. Solving a motion planning problem optimally using analytical methods is proven to be PSPACE-Hard.…