Related papers: Data-driven controllers and the need for perceptio…
This paper introduces a system designed for tight collaboration between Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs) in harsh maritime conditions characterized by large waves. This onboard UAV system aims to enhance…
Perception is necessary for autonomous navigation in an unknown area crowded with obstacles. It's challenging for a robot to navigate safely without any sensors that can sense the environment, resulting in a $\textit{blind}$ robot, and…
This paper develops a method to learn optimal controls from data for bilinear systems without a priori knowledge of the system dynamics. Given an unknown bilinear system, we first characterize when the available data is suitable to solve…
Improved designs for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) are becoming increasingly important due to their utility in academic and industrial applications. However, a majority of such testing and design is carried out under conditions that…
We investigate the problem of data-driven, on-the-fly control of systems with unknown nonlinear dynamics where data from only a single finite-horizon trajectory and possibly side information on the dynamics are available. Such side…
Machines are a long way from robustly solving open-world perception-control tasks, such as first-person view (FPV) aerial navigation. While recent advances in end-to-end Machine Learning, especially Imitation and Reinforcement Learning…
In marine operations underwater manipulators play a primordial role. However, due to uncertainties in the dynamic model and disturbances caused by the environment, low-level control methods require great capabilities to adapt to change.…
Self-driving vehicles are a maturing technology with the potential to reshape mobility by enhancing the safety, accessibility, efficiency, and convenience of automotive transportation. Safety-critical tasks that must be executed by a…
Heading towards navigational autonomy in unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) in the maritime sector can fundamentally lead towards safer waters as well as reduced operating costs, while also providing a range of exciting new capabilities for…
This paper presents a novel visual feature based scene mapping method for underwater vehicle manipulator systems (UVMSs), with specific emphasis on robust mapping in natural seafloor environments. Our method uses GPU accelerated SIFT…
This work presents DMPC (Data-and Model-Driven Predictive Control) to solve control problems in which some of the constraints or parts of the objective function are known, while others are entirely unknown to the controller. It is assumed…
Unmanned surface vehicles can encounter a number of varied visual circumstances during operation, some of which can be very difficult to interpret. While most cases can be solved only using color camera images, some weather and lighting…
While both navigation and manipulation are challenging topics in isolation, many tasks require the ability to both navigate and manipulate in concert. To this end, we propose a mobile manipulation system that leverages novel navigation and…
Aerial robots can enhance construction site productivity by autonomously handling inspection and mapping tasks. However, ensuring safe navigation near human workers remains challenging. While navigation in static environments has been well…
Autonomous motion planning is critical for efficient and safe underwater manipulation in dynamic marine environments. Current motion planning methods often fail to effectively utilize prior motion experiences and adapt to real-time…
Reinforcement learning-based quadruped robots excel across various terrains but still lack the ability to swim in water due to the complex underwater environment. This paper presents the development and evaluation of a data-driven…
We present a robust multi-robot convoying approach that relies on visual detection of the leading agent, thus enabling target following in unstructured 3-D environments. Our method is based on the idea of tracking-by-detection, which…
Underwater Vehicles have become more sophisticated, driven by the off-shore sector and the scientific community's rapid advancements in underwater operations. Notably, many underwater tasks, including the assessment of subsea…
Unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) and boats are increasingly important in maritime operations, yet their deployment is limited due to costly sensors and complexity. LiDAR, radar, and depth cameras are either costly, yield sparse point clouds…
The worldwide growth of maritime traffic and the development of the Automatic Identification System (AIS) has led to advances in monitoring systems for preventing vessel accidents and detecting illegal activities. In this work, we describe…