Related papers: ClipBot: an educational, physically impaired robot…
Reliable and stable locomotion has been one of the most fundamental challenges for legged robots. Deep reinforcement learning (deep RL) has emerged as a promising method for developing such control policies autonomously. In this paper, we…
Precise trajectory tracking for legged robots can be challenging due to their high degrees of freedom, unmodeled nonlinear dynamics, or random disturbances from the environment. A commonly adopted solution to overcome these challenges is to…
It is true that the "best" neural network is not necessarily the one with the most "brain-like" behavior. Understanding biological intelligence, however, is a fundamental goal for several distinct disciplines. Translating our understanding…
Design of robots at the small scale is a trial-and-error based process, which is costly and time-consuming. There are few dynamic simulation tools available to accurately predict the motion or performance of untethered microrobots as they…
Wheel-legged robots combine the advantages of both wheeled robots and legged robots, offering versatile locomotion capabilities with excellent stability on challenging terrains and high efficiency on flat surfaces. However, existing…
Establishing adaptive particles that sense their state, anticipate their evolution, and compute control inputs onboard has been a major challenge in non-equilibrium physics. We address this challenge by realizing an autonomous brainbot,…
Quadruped robots are usually equipped with additional arms for manipulation, negatively impacting price and weight. On the other hand, the requirements of legged locomotion mean that the legs of such robots often possess the needed torque…
The Mini Wheelbot is a balancing, reaction wheel unicycle robot designed as a testbed for learning-based control. It is an unstable system with highly nonlinear yaw dynamics, non-holonomic driving, and discrete contact switches in a small,…
Wheeled-legged robots combine the efficiency of wheeled robots when driving on suitably flat surfaces and versatility of legged robots when stepping over or around obstacles. This paper introduces a planning and control framework to realise…
Teaching and learning physical skills often require one-on-one interaction, making it difficult to scale up, as there are not enough human teachers. Robots offer an attractive alternative. This paper presents TeachingBot, an adaptive…
This paper presents a -- Learning from Demonstration -- method to perform robot movement trajectories that can be defined as you go. This way unstructured tasks can be performed, without the need to know exactly all the tasks and start and…
Salamander-like quadruped robots are designed inspired by the skeletal structure of their biological counterparts. However, existing controllers cannot fully exploit these morphological features and largely rely on predefined gait patterns…
Recent studies have demonstrated the immense potential of exploiting muscle actuator morphology for natural and robust movement -- in simulation. A validation on real robotic hardware is yet missing. In this study, we emulate muscle…
Robots are becoming more capable and can autonomously perform tasks such as navigating between locations. However, human oversight remains crucial. This study compared two touchless methods for directing mobile robots: voice control and…
Bipedal locomotion is a key challenge in robotics, particularly for robots like Bolt, which have a point-foot design. This study explores the control of such underactuated robots using constrained reinforcement learning, addressing their…
Humanoid robots, designed to operate in human-centric environments, serve as a fundamental platform for a broad range of tasks. Although humanoid robots have been extensively studied for decades, a majority of existing humanoid robots still…
Every robot built to date was predesigned by an external process, prior to deployment. Here we show a robot that actively participates in its own design during its lifetime. Starting from a randomly assembled body, and using only…
This paper presents a 3-DOF hopping robot with a human-like lower-limb joint configuration and a flat foot, capable of performing dynamic and repetitive jumping motions. To achieve both high torque output and a large hollow shaft diameter…
Cooking robots can enhance the home experience by reducing the burden of daily chores. However, these robots must perform their tasks dexterously and safely in shared human environments, especially when handling dangerous tools such as…
Multi-legged robots with six or more legs are not in common use, despite designs with superior stability, maneuverability, and a low number of actuators being available for over 20 years. This may be in part due to the difficulty in…