Related papers: Contact Optimization for Non-Prehensile Loco-Manip…
Mobile manipulators require coordinated control between navigation and manipulation to accomplish tasks. Typically, coordinated mobile manipulation behaviors have base navigation to approach the goal followed by arm manipulation to reach…
This paper introduces an upper limb postural optimization method for enhancing physical ergonomics and force manipulability during bimanual human-robot co-carrying tasks. Existing research typically emphasizes human safety or manipulative…
This paper presents a state-of-the-art optimal controller for quadruped locomotion. The robot dynamics is represented using a single rigid body (SRB) model. A linear time-varying model predictive controller (LTV MPC) is proposed by using…
In real-world applications of mobile robots, collision avoidance is of critical importance. Typically, global motion planning in constrained environments is addressed through high-level control schemes. However, additionally integrating…
This paper addresses the problem of computing optimal impedance schedules for legged locomotion tasks involving complex contact interactions. We formulate the problem of impedance regulation as a trade-off between disturbance rejection and…
Linear models for control and motion generation of humanoid robots have received significant attention in the past years, not only due to their well known theoretical guarantees, but also because of practical computational advantages.…
Tendon-Driven Continuum Robots (TDCRs) have the potential to be used in minimally invasive surgery and industrial inspection, where the robot must enter narrow and confined spaces. We propose a Model Predictive Control (MPC) approach to…
In this paper, we propose a whole-body planning framework that unifies dynamic locomotion and manipulation tasks by formulating a single multi-contact optimal control problem. We model the hybrid nature of a generic multi-limbed mobile…
We propose a contact-explicit hierarchical architecture coupling Reinforcement Learning (RL) and Model Predictive Control (MPC), where a high-level RL agent provides gait and navigation commands to a low-level locomotion MPC. This offloads…
Legged robots possess a unique ability to traverse rough terrains and navigate cluttered environments, making them well-suited for complex, real-world unstructured scenarios. However, such robots have not yet achieved the same level as seen…
Long-term non-prehensile planar manipulation is a challenging task for planning and control, requiring determination of both continuous and discrete contact configurations, such as contact points and modes. This leads to the non-convexity…
Convex model predictive controls (MPCs) with a single rigid body model have demonstrated strong performance on real legged robots. However, convex MPCs are limited by their assumptions such as small rotation angle and pre-defined gait,…
This paper presents a method for local motion planning in unstructured environments with static and moving obstacles, such as humans. Given a reference path and speed, our optimization-based receding-horizon approach computes a local…
Perceptive locomotion for legged robots requires anticipating and adapting to complex, dynamic environments. Model Predictive Control (MPC) serves as a strong baseline, providing interpretable motion planning with constraint enforcement,…
We begin this paper by presenting our approach to robot manipulation, which emphasizes the benefits of making contact with the world across the entire manipulator. We assume that low contact forces are benign, and focus on the development…
We present a versatile nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) formulation for quadrupedal locomotion. Our formulation jointly optimizes a base trajectory and a set of footholds over a finite time horizon based on simplified dynamics…
Contact planning is crucial in locomoting systems.Specifically, appropriate contact planning can enable versatile behaviors (e.g., sidewinding in limbless locomotors) and facilitate speed-dependent gait transitions (e.g., walk-trot-gallop…
Quadrupedal wheeled-legged robots combine the advantages of legged and wheeled locomotion to achieve superior mobility, but executing dynamic jumps remains a significant challenge due to the additional degrees of freedom introduced by…
While motion planning of locomotion for legged robots has shown great success, motion planning for legged robots with dexterous multi-finger grasping is not mature yet. We present an efficient motion planning framework for simultaneously…
This paper proposes a new control algorithm for human-robot co-transportation using a robot manipulator equipped with a mobile base and a robotic arm. We integrate the regular Model Predictive Control (MPC) with a novel pose optimization…