Related papers: Toward smart composites: small-scale, untethered p…
A multiscale (micro-to-macro) analysis is proposed for the prediction of the finite strain behavior of composites with hyperelastic constituents and embedded localized damage. The composites are assumed to possess periodic microstructure…
Dynamic control of a soft-body robot to deliver complex behaviors with low-dimensional actuation inputs is challenging. In this paper, we present a computational approach to automatically generate versatile, underactuated control policies…
Dynamic resource management has become one of the major areas of research in modern computer and communication system design due to lower power consumption and higher performance demands. The number of integrated cores, level of…
The deployment of machine learning (ML) models on microcontrollers (MCUs) is constrained by strict energy, latency, and memory requirements, particularly in battery-operated and real-time edge devices. While software-level optimizations…
Amphibious legged robots inspired by salamanders are promising in applications in complex amphibious environments. However, despite the significant success of training controllers that achieve diverse locomotion behaviors in conventional…
Commonly used linear and nonlinear constitutive material models in deformation simulation contain many simplifications and only cover a tiny part of possible material behavior. In this work we propose a framework for learning customized…
We propose a novel fast and accurate simulation framework for contact-intensive tight-tolerance robotic assembly tasks. The key components of our framework are as follows: 1) data-driven contact point clustering with a certain…
Recent hardware acceleration advances have enabled powerful specialized accelerators for finite element computations, spiking neural network inference, and sparse tensor operations. However, existing approaches face fundamental limitations:…
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…
This paper presents a novel Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) scheme for underwater robotic vehicles operating in a constrained workspace including static obstacles. The purpose of the controller is to guide the vehicle towards…
To enable safe and efficient human-robot collaboration in shared workspaces it is important for the robot to predict how a human will move when performing a task. While predicting human motion for tasks not known a priori is very…
The neural encoding by biological sensors of flying insects, which prefilters stimulus data before sending it to the central nervous system in the form of voltage spikes, enables sensing capabilities that are computationally low-cost while…
Adaptive control for real-time manipulation requires quick estimation and prediction of object properties. While robot learning in this area primarily focuses on using vision, many tasks cannot rely on vision due to object occlusion. Here,…
In this paper, we consider the problem of reference tracking in uncertain nonlinear systems. A neural State-Space Model (NSSM) is used to approximate the nonlinear system, where a deep encoder network learns the nonlinearity from data, and…
In this paper, we leverage the rapid advances in imitation learning, a topic of intense recent focus in the Reinforcement Learning (RL) literature, to develop new sample complexity results and performance guarantees for data-driven Model…
This paper proposes a data-driven motion-planning framework for nonlinear systems that constructs a sequence of overlapping invariant polytopes. Around each randomly sampled waypoint, the algorithm identifies a convex admissible region and…
Tactile sensing is a crucial perception mode for robots and human amputees in need of controlling a prosthetic device. Today robotic and prosthetic systems are still missing the important feature of accurate tactile sensing. This lack is…
This paper introduces a computational composite material comprising layers for actuation, computation and energy storage. Key to its design is inexpensive materials assembled from traditionally available fabrication machines to support the…
Control of complex systems involves both system identification and controller design. Deep neural networks have proven to be successful in many identification tasks, however, from model-based control perspective, these networks are…
Manipulating objects without grasping them is an essential component of human dexterity, referred to as non-prehensile manipulation. Non-prehensile manipulation may enable more complex interactions with the objects, but also presents…