Related papers: Algorithmic Approaches to Reconfigurable Assembly …
We study a class of rearrangement problems under a novel pick-n-swap prehensile manipulation model, in which a robotic manipulator, capable of carrying an item and making item swaps, is tasked to sort items stored in lattices of variable…
The research and development of intelligent automation solutions is a ground-breaking point for the factory of the future. A promising and challenging mission is the use of autonomous robot systems to automate tasks in the field of…
In an effort to penetrate the market at an affordable cost, consumer robots tend to provide limited processing capabilities, just enough to serve the purpose they have been designed for. However, a robot, in principle, should be able to…
Distributed optimization provides a framework for deriving distributed algorithms for a variety of multi-robot problems. This tutorial constitutes the first part of a two-part series on distributed optimization applied to multi-robot…
We consider the problem of multi-robot path planning in a complex, cluttered environment with the aim of reducing overall congestion in the environment, while avoiding any inter-robot communication or coordination. Such limitations may…
In this paper we describe a novel local algorithm for large statistical swarms using "harmonic attractor dynamics", by means of which a swarm can construct harmonics of the environment. This in turn allows the swarm to approximately…
Path planning is a classic problem for autonomous robots. To ensure safe and efficient point-to-point navigation an appropriate algorithm should be chosen keeping the robot's dimensions and its classification in mind. Autonomous robots use…
Reversibility is a key issue in the interface between computation and physics, and of growing importance as miniaturization progresses towards its physical limits. Most foundational work on reversible computing to date has focussed on…
Robust motion planning is a well-studied problem in the robotics literature, yet current algorithms struggle to operate scalably and safely in the presence of other moving agents, such as humans. This paper introduces a novel framework for…
The paper presents a new formal way of modeling and designing reconfigurable robots, in which case the robots are allowed to reconfigure not only structurally but also functionally. We call such kind of robots "self-evolvable", which have…
Recent advances in large language models (LLMs) have led to significant progress in robotics, enabling embodied agents to better understand and execute open-ended tasks. However, existing approaches using LLMs face limitations in grounding…
Modular robots have the potential to revolutionize automation, as one can optimize their composition for any given task. However, finding optimal compositions is non-trivial. In addition, different compositions require different base…
Building structures can allow a robot to surmount large obstacles, expanding the set of areas it can reach. This paper presents a planning algorithm to automatically determine what structures a construction-capable robot must build in order…
Distributed optimization consists of multiple computation nodes working together to minimize a common objective function through local computation iterations and network-constrained communication steps. In the context of robotics,…
We present a decentralized and scalable approach for deployment of a robot swarm. Our approach tackles scenarios in which the swarm must reach multiple spatially distributed targets, and enforce the constraint that the robot network cannot…
To solve multi-step manipulation tasks in the real world, an autonomous robot must take actions to observe its environment and react to unexpected observations. This may require opening a drawer to observe its contents or moving an object…
In robotic deformable object manipulation (DOM) applications, constraints arise commonly from environments and task-specific requirements. Enabling DOM with constraints is therefore crucial for its deployment in practice. However, dealing…
Motion planning in high-dimensional space is a challenging task. In order to perform dexterous manipulation in an unstructured environment, a robot with many degrees of freedom is usually necessary, which also complicates its motion…
We present an algorithm determining where to relocate objects inside a cluttered and confined space while rearranging objects to retrieve a target object. Although methods that decide what to remove have been proposed, planning for the…
In this paper, we deal with the problem of creating globally consistent pose graphs in a centralized multi-robot SLAM framework. For each robot to act autonomously, individual onboard pose estimates and maps are maintained, which are then…