Related papers: Inexact Loops in Robotics Problems
We develop a rounding method based on random walks in polytopes, which leads to improved approximation algorithms and integrality gaps for several assignment problems that arise in resource allocation and scheduling. In particular, it…
Loop closure detection, which is the task of identifying locations revisited by a robot in a sequence of odometry and perceptual observations, is typically formulated as a visual place recognition (VPR) task. However, even state-of-the-art…
The interaction topology is critical for efficient cooperation of mobile robotic networks (MRNs). We focus on the local topology inference problem of MRNs under formation control, where an inference robot with limited observation range can…
Characterizing the risk of operations is a fundamental requirement in robotics, and a crucial ingredient of safe planning. The problem is multifaceted, with multiple definitions arising in the vast recent literature fitting different…
We examine the metrics that arise when a finite set of points is embedded in the real line, in such a way that the distance between each pair of points is at least 1. These metrics are closely related to some other known metrics in the…
Coverage path planning is a fundamental challenge in robotics, with diverse applications in aerial surveillance, manufacturing, cleaning, inspection, agriculture, and more. The main objective is to devise a trajectory for an agent that…
Task and motion planning represents a powerful set of hybrid planning methods that combine reasoning over discrete task domains and continuous motion generation. Traditional reasoning necessitates task domain models and enough information…
Recent progress in robotic manipulation has dealt with the case of previously unknown objects in the context of relatively simple tasks, such as bin-picking. Existing methods for more constrained problems, however, such as deliberate…
In this series of papers, we present a motion planning framework for planning comfortable and customizable motion of nonholonomic mobile robots such as intelligent wheelchairs and autonomous cars. In Part I, we presented the mathematical…
Recent advancements in robotics have transformed industries such as manufacturing, logistics, surgery, and planetary exploration. A key challenge is developing efficient motion planning algorithms that allow robots to navigate complex…
The study of topological information of spatial objects has for a long time been a focus of research in disciplines like computational geometry, spatial reasoning, cognitive science, and robotics. While the majority of these researches…
Random walks on graphs are widely used in all sciences to describe a great variety of phenomena where dynamical random processes are affected by topology. In recent years, relevant mathematical results have been obtained in this field, and…
We present a unified approach for constraint displacement problems in which a robot finds a feasible path by displacing constraints or obstacles. To this end, we propose a two stage process that returns locally optimal obstacle…
We point out an incompleteness of formulations of gravitational and gauge theories that use traces of holonomies around closed curves as their basic variables. It is shown that in general such loop variables have to satisfy certain…
Precise trajectory tracking for legged robots can be challenging due to their high degrees of freedom, unmodeled nonlinear dynamics, or random disturbances from the environment. A commonly adopted solution to overcome these challenges is to…
An algorithm for solving nonconvex smooth optimization problems is proposed, analyzed, and tested. The algorithm is an extension of the Trust Region Algorithm with Contractions and Expansions (TRACE) [Math. Prog. 162(1):132, 2017]. In…
Loop closure, as one of the crucial components in SLAM, plays an essential role in correcting the accumulated errors. Traditional appearance-based methods, such as bag-of-words models, are often limited by local 2D features and the volume…
Various packing problems and simulations of hard and soft interacting particles, such as microscopic models of nematic liquid crystals, reduce to calculations of intersections and pair interactions between ellipsoids. When constrained to a…
Humanoid robots are machines built with an anthropomorphic shape. Despite decades of research into the subject, it is still challenging to tackle the robot locomotion problem from an algorithmic point of view. For example, these machines…
We experimentally study the fundamental problem of computing the volume of a convex polytope given as an intersection of linear inequalities. We implement and evaluate practical randomized algorithms for accurately approximating the…