Related papers: Safe Human-Interactive Control via Shielding
This paper introduces the Safe Protective and Assistive Robot Kit (SPARK), a comprehensive benchmark designed to ensure safety in humanoid autonomy and teleoperation. Humanoid robots pose significant safety risks due to their physical…
Autonomous systems are emerging in many application domains. With the recent advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning, sensor technology, perception algorithms and robotics, scenarios previously requiring strong human…
Safe human-robot interactions require robots to be able to learn how to behave appropriately in \sout{humans' world} \rev{spaces populated by people} and thus to cope with the challenges posed by our dynamic and unstructured environment,…
Safety-critical control is essential for humanoid robots operating in complex human-centered environments, where physical safety constraints such as joint limits, self-collision avoidance, obstacle avoidance, and workspace boundaries must…
Verifying the correct behavior of robots in contact tasks is challenging due to model uncertainties associated with contacts. Standard methods for testing often fall short since all (uncountable many) solutions cannot be obtained. Instead,…
Assistive robotic systems have shown growing potential to improve the quality of life of those with disabilities. As researchers explore the automation of various caregiving tasks, considerations for how the technology can still preserve…
Goal-conditioned policies, such as those learned via imitation learning, provide an easy way for humans to influence what tasks robots accomplish. However, these robot policies are not guaranteed to execute safely or to succeed when faced…
Reinforcement learning is a promising approach to synthesizing policies for challenging robotics tasks. A key problem is how to ensure safety of the learned policy---e.g., that a walking robot does not fall over or that an autonomous car…
Although soft robots show safer interactions with their environment than traditional robots, soft mechanisms and actuators still have significant potential for damage or degradation particularly during unmodeled contact. This article…
We consider scenarios where a worker robot, who may be unaware of the human's exact expectations, may have the incentive to deviate from a preferred plan (e.g. safe but costly) when a human supervisor is not monitoring it. On the other…
Bolting operations are critical in industrial assembly and in the maintenance of scientific facilities, requiring high precision and robustness to faults. Although robotic solutions have the potential to improve operational safety and…
The growing use of robots in urban environments has raised concerns about potential safety hazards, especially in public spaces where humans and robots may interact. In this paper, we present a system for safe human-robot interaction that…
Recent years have seen significant progress in the realm of robot autonomy, accompanied by the expanding reach of robotic technologies. However, the emergence of new deployment domains brings unprecedented challenges in ensuring safe…
We humans are biased - and our robotic creations are biased, too. Bias is a natural phenomenon that drives our perceptions and behavior, including when it comes to socially expressive robots that have humanlike features. Recognizing that we…
Ensuring safety for vehicle overtaking systems is one of the most fundamental and challenging tasks in autonomous driving. This task is particularly intricate when the vehicle must not only overtake its front vehicle safely but also…
Recent progress in AI and Reinforcement learning has shown great success in solving complex problems with high dimensional state spaces. However, most of these successes have been primarily in simulated environments where failure is of…
Autonomous Braking and Throttle control is key in developing safe driving systems for the future. There exists a need for autonomous vehicles to negotiate a multi-agent environment while ensuring safety and comfort. A Deep Reinforcement…
Safe deployment of autonomous robots in diverse scenarios requires agents that are capable of efficiently adapting to new environments while satisfying constraints. In this work, we propose a practical and theoretically-justified approach…
Unlike human beings that can employ the entire surface of their limbs as a means to establish contact with their environment, robots are typically programmed to interact with their environments via their end-effectors, in a collision-free…
In robotics, many control and planning schemes have been developed to ensure human physical safety in human-robot interaction. The human psychological state and the expectation towards the robot, however, are typically neglected. Even if…