Related papers: Learning Contact-aware CPG-based Locomotion in a S…
Legged robots must adapt their gait to navigate unpredictable environments, a challenge that animals master with ease. However, most deep reinforcement learning (DRL) approaches to quadruped locomotion rely on a fixed gait, limiting…
Robotic automation is a key driver for the advancement of technology. The skills of human workers, however, are difficult to program and seem currently unmatched by technical systems. In this work we present a data-driven approach to…
Legged robots navigating cluttered environments must be jointly agile for efficient task execution and safe to avoid collisions with obstacles or humans. Existing studies either develop conservative controllers (< 1.0 m/s) to ensure safety,…
Grasping is a core task in robotics with various applications. However, most current implementations are primarily designed for rigid items, and their performance drops considerably when handling fragile or deformable materials that require…
We propose a robust dynamic walking controller consisting of a dynamic locomotion planner, a reinforcement learning process for robustness, and a novel whole-body locomotion controller (WBLC). Previous approaches specify either the position…
Recent research on mobile robots has focused on increasing their adaptability to unpredictable and unstructured environments using soft materials and structures. However, the determination of key design parameters and control over these…
We use model-free reinforcement learning, extensive simulation, and transfer learning to develop a continuous control algorithm that has good zero-shot performance in a real physical environment. We train a simulated agent to act optimally…
Bipedal walking is one of the most important hallmarks of human that robots have been trying to mimic for many decades. Although previous control methodologies have achieved robot walking on some terrains, there is a need for a framework…
This paper develops a hierarchical learning and optimization framework that can learn and achieve well-coordinated multi-skill locomotion. The learned multi-skill policy can switch between skills automatically and naturally in tracking…
Recent advances in deep reinforcement learning (RL) based techniques combined with training in simulation have offered a new approach to developing robust controllers for legged robots. However, the application of such approaches to real…
Control of wheeled humanoid locomotion is a challenging problem due to the nonlinear dynamics and under-actuated characteristics of these robots. Traditionally, feedback controllers have been utilized for stabilization and locomotion.…
Controlling Wheeled-legged robots is challenging especially on slippery surfaces due to their dependence on continuous ground contact. Unlike quadrupeds or bipeds, which can leverage multiple fixed contact points for recovery,…
The Central Pattern Generator (CPG) is adept at generating rhythmic gait patterns characterized by consistent timing and adequate foot clearance. Yet, its open-loop configuration often compromises the system's control performance in…
We present a contact-implicit trajectory optimization framework that can plan contact-interaction trajectories for different robot architectures and tasks using a trivial initial guess and without requiring any parameter tuning. This is…
This manuscript presents a model of compliant contacts for time-critical humanoid robot motion control. The proposed model considers the environment as a continuum of spring-damper systems, which allows us to compute the equivalent contact…
The development of robot control programs is a complex task. Many robots are different in their electrical and mechanical structure which is also reflected in the software. Specific robot software environments support the program…
Self-organized robots may develop attracting states within the sensorimotor loop, that is within the phase space of neural activity, body, and environmental variables. Fixpoints, limit cycles, and chaotic attractors correspond in this…
Soft robotic crawlers are mobile robots that utilize soft body deformability and compliance to achieve locomotion through surface contact. Designing control strategies for such systems is challenging due to model inaccuracies, sensor noise,…
Robots built from soft materials will inherently apply lower environmental forces than their rigid counterparts, and therefore may be more suitable in sensitive settings with unintended contact. However, these robots' applied forces result…
Achieving highly dynamic behaviors on humanoid robots, such as running, requires controllers that are both robust and precise, and hence difficult to design. Classical control methods offer valuable insight into how such systems can…