Related papers: Nonprehensile Manipulation of a Stick Using Impuls…
This paper studies the problem of passive grasp stability under an external disturbance, that is, the ability of a grasp to resist a disturbance through passive responses at the contacts. To obtain physically consistent results, such a…
Object manipulation has been extensively studied in the context of fixed base and mobile manipulators. However, the overactuated locomotion modality employed by snake robots allows for a unique blend of object manipulation through…
It is shown that an internal control based on a moving indicator function is able to stabilize the state of parabolic equations evolving in rectangular domains. For proving the stabilizability result, we start with a control obtained from…
While modeling multi-contact manipulation as a quasi-static mechanical process transitioning between different contact equilibria, we propose formulating it as a planning and optimization problem, explicitly evaluating (i) contact stability…
We introduce the concept of a control contraction metric, extending contraction analysis to constructive nonlinear control design. We derive sufficient conditions for exponential stabilizability of all trajectories of a nonlinear control…
On-orbit servicing represents a critical frontier in future aerospace engineering, with the manipulation of dynamic non-cooperative targets serving as a key technology. In microgravity environments, objects are typically free-floating,…
The paper addresses an optimal control problem for a perturbed sweeping process of the rate-independent hysteresis type described by a controlled "play and stop" operator with separately controlled perturbations. This problem can be reduced…
Immersion and Invariance is a technique for the design of stabilizing and adaptive controllers and state observers for nonlinear systems. In all these applications the problem considered is the stabilization of equilibrium points. Motivated…
The bouncing of an inelastic ball on a vibrating plate is a popular model used in various fields, from granular gases to nanometer-sized mechanical contacts. For random plate motion, so far, the model has been studied using Poincar{\'e}…
This paper presents the concept of a tethered variable inertial attitude control mechanism for a modular jumping-limbed robot designed for planetary exploration in low-gravity environments. The system, named SPLITTER, comprises two sub-10…
The goal of this paper is to investigate the normal and tangential forces acting at the point of contact between a horizontal surface and a rolling ball actuated by internal point masses moving in the ball's frame of reference. The normal…
This article is devoted to the study of a $2$-dimensional piecewise smooth (but possibly) discontinuous dynamical system, subject to a non-autonomous perturbation; we assume that the unperturbed system admits a homoclinic trajectory…
In intelligent manufacturing, robots are asked to dynamically adapt their behaviours without reducing productivity. Human teaching, where an operator physically interacts with the robot to demonstrate a new task, is a promising strategy to…
This paper presents the technique of flex-and-flip manipulation. It is suitable for grasping thin, flexible linear objects lying on a flat surface. During the manipulation process, the object is first flexed by a robotic gripper whose…
Robot manipulation in cluttered environments often requires complex and sequential rearrangement of multiple objects in order to achieve the desired reconfiguration of the target objects. Due to the sophisticated physical interactions…
Object manipulation has been extensively studied in the context of fixed base and mobile manipulators. However, the overactuated locomotion modality employed by snake robots allows for a unique blend of object manipulation through…
We illustrate how the different kinds of constraints acting on an impulsive mechanical system can be clearly described in the geometric setup given by the configuration space--time bundle $\pi_t:\mathcal{M} \to \mathbb{E}$ and its first jet…
We present a novel method for optimizing the posture of kinematically redundant torque-controlled robots to improve robustness during impacts. A rigid impact model is used as the basis for a configuration-dependent metric that quantifies…
In this paper, we present asymmetric pivot manipulation for picking up rigid hollow objects to achieve a hole grasp. The pivot motion, executed by a position-controlled robotic arm, enables the gripper to effectively grasp hollow objects…
This thesis is concerned with deriving planning algorithms for robot manipulators. Manipulation has two effects, the robot has a physical effect on the object, and it also acquires information about the object. This thesis presents…