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Wheeled bipedal robots are emerging as flexible platforms for field exploration. However, head instability induced by uneven terrain can degrade the accuracy of onboard sensors or damage fragile payloads. Existing research primarily focuses…
Typically, learned robot controllers are trained via relatively unsystematic regimens and evaluated with coarse-grained outcome measures such as average cumulative reward. The typical approach is useful to compare learning algorithms but…
The motion control of wheeled mobile robots at high speeds under adverse ground conditions is a difficult task, since the robots' wheels may be subject to different kinds of slip. This work introduces an adaptive kinematic controller that…
The ability of bipedal robots to adapt to diverse and unstructured terrain conditions is crucial for their deployment in real-world environments. To this end, we present a novel, bio-inspired robot foot design with stabilizing tarsal…
Locomotion on dynamic rigid surface (i.e., rigid surface accelerating in an inertial frame) presents complex challenges for controller design, which are essential for deploying humanoid robots in dynamic real-world environments such as…
Robust reinforcement learning agents using high-dimensional observations must be able to identify relevant state features amidst many exogeneous distractors. A representation that captures controllability identifies these state elements by…
We present a new walking controller based on 3LP, a 3D model of bipedal walking that is composed of three pendulums to simulate falling, swing and torso dynamics. Taking advantage of linear equations and closed-form solutions of 3LP, the…
Despite the potential benefits of collaborative robots, effective manipulation tasks with quadruped robots remain difficult to realize. In this paper, we propose a hierarchical control system that can handle real-world collaborative…
Bipedal running is a difficult task to realize in robots, since the trunk is underactuated and control is limited by intermittent ground contacts. Stabilizing the trunk becomes even more challenging if the terrain is uneven and causes…
Stable bipedal walking is a key prerequisite for humanoid robots to reach their potential of being versatile helpers in our everyday environments. Bipedal walking is, however, a complex motion that requires the coordination of many degrees…
We establish stability results for PD tracking control laws in bipedal walking robots. Stability of PD control laws for continuous robotic systems is an established result, and we extend this for hybrid robotic systems, an alternating…
Vision-based locomotion has shown great promise in enabling legged robots to perceive and adapt to complex environments. However, visual information is inherently fragile, being vulnerable to occlusions, reflections, and lighting changes,…
Recently several hierarchical inverse dynamics controllers based on cascades of quadratic programs have been proposed for application on torque controlled robots. They have important theoretical benefits but have never been implemented on a…
This work presents algorithms for the feedback-stabilised walking of bipedal humanoid robotic platforms, along with the underlying theoretical and sensorimotor frameworks required to achieve it. Bipedal walking is inherently complex and…
Recent progress in humanoid robots has unlocked agile locomotion skills, including backflipping, running, and crawling. Yet it remains challenging for a humanoid robot to perform forceful manipulation tasks such as moving objects, wiping,…
This paper introduces a new approach to enhance the robustness of humanoid walking under strong perturbations, such as substantial pushes. Effective recovery from external disturbances requires bipedal robots to dynamically adjust their…
Low-dimensional models are ubiquitous in the bipedal robotics literature. On the one hand is the community of researchers that bases feedback control design on pendulum models selected to capture the center of mass dynamics of the robot…
Designing robotic assistance devices for manipulation tasks is challenging. This work is concerned with improving accuracy and usability of semi-autonomous robots, such as human operated manipulators or exoskeletons. The key insight is to…
Reinforcement learning (RL) for bipedal locomotion has recently demonstrated robust gaits over moderate terrains using only proprioceptive sensing. However, such blind controllers will fail in environments where robots must anticipate and…
A robotic platform for mobile manipulation needs to satisfy two contradicting requirements for many real-world applications: A compact base is required to navigate through cluttered indoor environments, while the support needs to be large…