Related papers: On Safety Testing, Validation, and Characterizatio…
In this paper, we investigate the synthesis of piecewise affine feedback controllers to address the problem of safe and robust controller design in robotics based on high-level controls specifications. The methodology is based on…
Accurate gravity field models are essential for safe proximity operations around small bodies. State-of-the-art techniques use spherical harmonics or high-fidelity polyhedron shape models. Unfortunately, these techniques can become…
Sampling-based motion planning techniques have emerged as an efficient algorithmic paradigm for solving complex motion planning problems. These approaches use a set of probing samples to construct an implicit graph representation of the…
In this work, we aim to enable legged robots to learn how to interpret human social cues and produce appropriate behaviors through physical human guidance. However, learning through physical engagement can place a heavy burden on users when…
The motion of robots and objects in our world is often highly dependent upon contact. When contact is expected but does not occur or when contact is not expected but does occur, robot behavior diverges from plan, often disastrously. This…
Recent research on mobile robots has focused on increasing their adaptability to unpredictable and unstructured environments using soft materials and structures. However, the determination of key design parameters and control over these…
An important prerequisite for the reliability and robustness of a service robot is ensuring the robot's correct behavior when it performs various tasks of interest. Extensive testing is one established approach for ensuring behavioural…
Reinforcement Learning (RL) and continuous nonlinear control have been successfully deployed in multiple domains of complicated sequential decision-making tasks. However, given the exploration nature of the learning process and the presence…
Many safety-critical scientific and engineering systems evolve according to differential-algebraic equations (DAEs), where dynamical behavior is constrained by physical laws and admissibility conditions. In practice, these systems operate…
Robotic loco-manipulation tasks often involve contact-rich interactions with the environment, requiring the joint modeling of contact force and robot position. However, recent visuomotor policies often focus solely on learning position or…
Safety concerns have risen as robots become more integrated into our daily lives and continue to interact closely with humans. One of the most crucial safety priorities is preventing collisions between robots and people walking nearby.…
The functional demands of robotic systems often require completing various tasks or behaviors under the effect of disturbances or uncertain environments. Of increasing interest is the autonomy for dynamic robots, such as multirotors, motor…
Since humans and robots are increasingly sharing portions of their operational spaces, experimental evidence is needed to ascertain the safety and social acceptability of robots in human-populated environments. Although several studies have…
Legged robots have the potential to traverse complex terrain and access confined spaces beyond the reach of traditional platforms thanks to their ability to carefully select footholds and flexibly adapt their body posture while walking.…
Imitation learning is a popular approach for training visual navigation policies. However, collecting expert demonstrations for legged robots is challenging as these robots can be hard to control, move slowly, and cannot operate…
Developing agile behaviors for legged robots remains a challenging problem. While deep reinforcement learning is a promising approach, learning truly agile behaviors typically requires tedious reward shaping and careful curriculum design.…
Autonomous Cyber-Physical Systems must often operate under uncertainties like sensor degradation and shifts in the operating conditions, which increases its operational risk. Dynamic Assurance of these systems requires designing runtime…
In order to safely operate around humans, robots can employ predictive models of human motion. Unfortunately, these models cannot capture the full complexity of human behavior and necessarily introduce simplifying assumptions. As a result,…
Animals in nature combine multiple modalities, such as sight and feel, to perceive terrain and develop an understanding of how to walk on uneven terrain in a stable manner. Similarly, legged robots need to develop their ability to stably…
Control of nonlinear uncertain systems is a common challenge in the robotics field. Nonlinear latent force models, which incorporate latent uncertainty characterized as Gaussian processes, carry the promise of representing such systems…