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When humans perform contact-rich manipulation tasks, customized tools are often necessary to simplify the task. For instance, we use various utensils for handling food, such as knives, forks and spoons. Similarly, robots may benefit from…

Constraint-based control approaches offer a flexible way to specify robotic manipulation tasks and execute them on robots with many degrees of freedom. However, the specification of task constraints and their associated priorities usually…

We introduce RoboNinja, a learning-based cutting system for multi-material objects (i.e., soft objects with rigid cores such as avocados or mangos). In contrast to prior works using open-loop cutting actions to cut through single-material…

In recent years, industrial robots have been installed in various industries to handle advanced manufacturing and high precision tasks. However, further integration of industrial robots is hampered by their limited flexibility, adaptability…

We describe a learning-based approach to hand-eye coordination for robotic grasping from monocular images. To learn hand-eye coordination for grasping, we trained a large convolutional neural network to predict the probability that…

In this paper, we present a hybrid position/force controller for operating joint robots. The hybrid controller has two goals -- motion tracking and force regulating. As long as these two goals are not mutually exclusive, they can be…

Vision-based learning methods provide promise for robots to learn complex manipulation tasks. However, how to generalize the learned manipulation skills to real-world interactions remains an open question. In this work, we study robotic…

Accurate estimation of fruit hardness is essential for automated classification and handling systems, particularly in determining fruit variety, assessing ripeness, and ensuring proper harvesting force. This study presents an innovative…

We propose a robotic manipulation system that can pivot objects on a surface using vision, wrist force and tactile sensing. We aim to control the rotation of an object around the grip point of a parallel gripper by allowing rotational slip,…

Social robots often rely on visual perception to understand their users and the environment. Recent advancements in data-driven approaches for computer vision have demonstrated great potentials for applying deep-learning models to enhance a…

Existing high-performance deep learning models require very intensive computing. For this reason, it is difficult to embed a deep learning model into a system with limited resources. In this paper, we propose the novel idea of the network…

This paper introduces Smart-Tree, a supervised method for approximating the medial axes of branch skeletons from a tree point cloud. Smart-Tree uses a sparse voxel convolutional neural network to extract the radius and direction towards the…

This paper investigates real-time control strategies for dynamical systems that involve frictional contact interactions. Hybridness and underactuation are key characteristics of these systems that complicate the design of feedback…

Regulating contact forces with high precision is crucial for grasping and manipulating fragile or deformable objects. We aim to utilize the dexterity of human hands to regulate the contact forces for robotic hands and exploit human…

Driven by significant improvements in architectural design and training pipelines, computer vision has recently experienced dramatic progress in terms of accuracy on classic benchmarks such as ImageNet. These highly-accurate models are…

Soft growing robots, commonly referred to as vine robots, have demonstrated remarkable ability to interact safely and robustly with unstructured and dynamic environments. It is therefore natural to exploit contact with the environment for…

The integration of collaborative robots into industrial environments has improved productivity, but has also highlighted significant challenges related to operator safety and ergonomics. This paper proposes an innovative framework that…

Forestry plays a vital role in our society, creating significant ecological, economic, and recreational value. Efficient forest management involves labor-intensive and complex operations. One essential task for maintaining forest health and…

The recent development of novel aerial vehicles capable of physically interacting with the environment leads to new applications such as contact-based inspection. These tasks require the robotic system to exchange forces with…

In this paper, we present the lessons learnt during the development of a new robotic harvester (Harvey) that can autonomously harvest sweet pepper (capsicum) in protected cropping environments. Robotic harvesting offers an attractive…