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An accurate motion model is an important component in modern-day robotic systems, but building such a model for a complex system often requires an appreciable amount of manual effort. In this paper we present a motion model representation,…
Throwing with a legged robot involves precise coordination of object manipulation and locomotion - crucial for advanced real-world interactions. Most research focuses on either manipulation or locomotion, with minimal exploration of tasks…
Natural and lifelike locomotion remains a fundamental challenge for humanoid robots to interact with human society. However, previous methods either neglect motion naturalness or rely on unstable and ambiguous style rewards. In this paper,…
The kinematic features of a centaur-type humanoid platform, combined with a powerful actuation, enable the experimentation of a variety of agile and dynamic motions. However, the higher number of degrees-of-freedom and the increased weight…
Humanoid robots have great potential for real-world applications due to their ability to operate in environments built for humans, but their deployment is hindered by the challenge of controlling their underlying high-dimensional nonlinear…
In this paper, we propose a novel framework on force-and-moment-based Model Predictive Control (MPC) for dynamic legged robots. Specifically, we present a formulation of MPC designed for 10 degree-of-freedom (DoF) bipedal robots using…
Designing agile locomotion for quadruped robots often requires extensive expertise and tedious manual tuning. In this paper, we present a system to automate this process by leveraging deep reinforcement learning techniques. Our system can…
While quadruped robots usually have good stability and load capacity, bipedal robots offer a higher level of flexibility / adaptability to different tasks and environments. A multi-modal legged robot can take the best of both worlds. In…
Simultaneous locomotion and manipulation enables robots to interact with their environment beyond the constraints of a fixed base. However, coordinating legged locomotion with arm manipulation, while considering safety and compliance during…
Dynamic legged locomotion is a challenging topic because of the lack of established control schemes which can handle aerial phases, short stance times, and high-speed leg swings. In this paper, we propose a controller combining whole-body…
Push recovery during locomotion will facilitate the deployment of humanoid robots in human-centered environments. In this paper, we present a unified framework for walking control and push recovery for humanoid robots, leveraging the arms…
Planning whole-body motions while taking into account the terrain conditions is a challenging problem for legged robots since the terrain model might produce many local minima. Our coupled planning method uses stochastic and…
Achieving versatile and naturalistic whole-body control for humanoid robot scene-interaction remains a significant challenge. While some recent works have demonstrated autonomous humanoid interactive control, they are constrained to rigid…
This paper presents a data-driven strategy to streamline the deployment of model-based controllers in legged robotic hardware platforms. Our approach leverages a model-free safe learning algorithm to automate the tuning of control gains,…
Advances in legged robotics are strongly rooted in animal observations. A clear illustration of this claim is the generalization of Central Pattern Generators (CPG), first identified in the cat spinal cord, to generate cyclic motion in…
Fully leveraging the loco-manipulation capabilities of a quadruped robot equipped with a robotic arm is non-trivial, as it requires controlling all degrees of freedom (DoFs) of the quadruped robot to achieve effective whole-body…
In this paper, we address force-aware control and force distribution in robotic platforms with multi-fingered hands. Given a target goal and force estimates from tactile sensors, we design a controller that adapts the motion of the torso,…
Rigid-bodied robots often lack compliance needed to adapt to unstructured environments, while fully soft robots, though highly adaptable, struggle with scalability and load capacity. In nature, musculoskeletal systems balance strength and…
Loco-manipulation is a fundamental challenge for humanoid robots to achieve versatile interactions in human environments. Although recent studies have made significant progress in humanoid whole-body control, loco-manipulation remains…
A safety-critical measure of legged locomotion performance is a robot's ability to track its desired time-varying position trajectory in an environment, which is herein termed as "global-position tracking". This paper introduces a nonlinear…