Related papers: Single-Level Differentiable Contact Simulation
We present a method for differentiable simulation of soft articulated bodies. Our work enables the integration of differentiable physical dynamics into gradient-based pipelines. We develop a top-down matrix assembly algorithm within…
From serving a cup of coffee to positioning mechanical parts during assembly, stable object placement is a crucial skill for future robots. It becomes particularly challenging under geometric uncertainties, e.g., when the object pose or…
This paper investigates the problem of efficient computation of physically consistent multi-contact behaviors. Recent work showed that under mild assumptions, the problem could be decomposed into simpler kinematic and centroidal dynamic…
Collision detection is a critical functionality for robotics. The degree to which objects collide cannot be represented as a continuously differentiable function for any shapes other than spheres. This paper proposes a framework for…
The current dominant paradigm for robotic manipulation involves two separate stages: manipulator design and control. Because the robot's morphology and how it can be controlled are intimately linked, joint optimization of design and control…
Over the past few years, robotics simulators have largely improved in efficiency and scalability, enabling them to generate years of simulated data in a few hours. Yet, efficiently and accurately computing the simulation derivatives remains…
This paper presents a novel contact-implicit trajectory optimization method using an analytically solvable contact model to enable planning of interactions with hard, soft, and slippery environments. Specifically, we propose a novel contact…
Rigid bodies, plastic impact, persistent contact, Coulomb friction, and massless limbs are ubiquitous simplifications introduced to reduce the complexity of mechanics models despite the obvious physical inaccuracies that each incurs…
High-fidelity physics simulation is essential for scalable robotic learning, but the sim-to-real gap persists, especially for tasks involving complex, dynamic, and discontinuous interactions like physical contacts. Explicit system…
When humans perform contact-rich manipulation tasks, customized tools are often necessary to simplify the task. For instance, we use various utensils for handling food, such as knives, forks and spoons. Similarly, robots may benefit from…
In this paper, we propose a contact-implicit trajectory optimization (CITO) method based on a variable smooth contact model (VSCM) and successive convexification (SCvx). The VSCM facilitates the convergence of gradient-based optimization…
Accurately modeling contact behaviors for real-world, near-rigid materials remains a grand challenge for existing rigid-body physics simulators. This paper introduces a data-augmented contact model that incorporates analytical solutions…
Physics-based simulation is essential for developing and evaluating robot manipulation policies, particularly in scenarios involving deformable objects and complex contact interactions. However, existing simulators often struggle to balance…
Collision detection plays a key role in the simulation of interacting rigid bodies. However, owing to its computational complexity current methods typically prioritize either maximizing processing speed or fidelity to real-world behaviors.…
Soft robots were introduced in large part to enable safe, adaptive interaction with the environment, and this interaction relies fundamentally on contact. However, modeling and planning contact-rich interactions for soft robots remain…
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…
Efficient planning of assembly motions is a long standing challenge in the field of robotics that has been primarily tackled with reinforcement learning and sampling-based methods by using extensive physics simulations. This paper proposes…
Cooperative robots can significantly assist people in their productive activities, improving the quality of their works. Collision detection is vital to ensure the safe and stable operation of cooperative robots in productive activities. As…
Differentiable simulation has become a powerful tool for system identification. While prior work has focused on identifying robot properties using robot-specific data or object properties using object-specific data, our approach calibrates…
In this paper, we explore an approach to actively plan and excite contact modes in differentiable simulators as a means to tighten the sim-to-real gap. We propose an optimal experimental design approach derived from information-theoretic…