Related papers: Learning-based Design and Control for Quadrupedal …
This paper introduces a chain-driven, sandwich-legged mid-size quadruped robot designed as an accessible research platform. The design prioritizes enhanced locomotion, improved actuation reliability and safety, and simplified,…
In this work, we present and study a training set-up that achieves fast policy generation for real-world robotic tasks by using massive parallelism on a single workstation GPU. We analyze and discuss the impact of different training…
This work presents a two part framework for online planning and execution of dynamic aerial motions on a quadruped robot. Motions are planned via a centroidal momentum-based nonlinear optimization that is general enough to produce rich sets…
Robotic exoskeletons can enhance human strength and aid people with physical disabilities. However, designing them to ensure safety and optimal performance presents significant challenges. Developing exoskeletons should incorporate specific…
The design of feedback controllers for bipedal robots is challenging due to the hybrid nature of its dynamics and the complexity imposed by high-dimensional bipedal models. In this paper, we present a novel approach for the design of…
Unlike their biological cousins, the majority of existing quadrupedal robots are constructed with rigid chassis. This results in motion that is either beetle-like or distinctly robotic, lacking the natural fluidity characteristic of…
This paper introduces a methodology for task-specific design optimization of multirotor Micro Aerial Vehicles. By leveraging reinforcement learning, Bayesian optimization, and covariance matrix adaptation evolution strategy, we optimize…
A major field of industrial robot applications deals with repetitive tasks that alternate between operating points. For these so-called pick-and-place operations, parallel kinematic manipulators (PKM) are frequently employed. These tasks…
Legged robots are promising candidates for exploring challenging areas on low-gravity bodies such as the Moon, Mars, or asteroids, thanks to their advanced mobility on unstructured terrain. However, as planetary robots' power and thermal…
A robotic system can be viewed as a collection of lower-dimensional systems that are coupled via reaction forces (Lagrange multipliers) enforcing holonomic constraints. Inspired by this viewpoint, this paper presents a novel formulation for…
High absolute accuracy is an essential prerequisite for a humanoid robot to autonomously and robustly perform manipulation tasks while avoiding obstacles. We present for the first time a kinematic model for a humanoid upper body…
Stabilizing legged robot locomotion on a dynamic rigid surface (DRS) (i.e., rigid surface that moves in the inertial frame) is a complex planning and control problem. The complexity arises due to the hybrid nonlinear walking dynamics…
Parallel robots (PR) offer potential for human-robot collaboration (HRC) due to their lower moving masses and higher speeds. However, the parallel leg chains increase the risks of collision and clamping. In this work, these hazards are…
Our goal is to make robotics more accessible to casual users by reducing the domain knowledge required in designing and building robots. Towards this goal, we present an interactive computational design system that enables users to design…
This work presents the application of reinforcement learning to improve the performance of a highly dynamic hopping system with a parallel mechanism. Unlike serial mechanisms, parallel mechanisms can not be accurately simulated due to the…
Modular robots can be rearranged into a new design, perhaps each day, to handle a wide variety of tasks by forming a customized robot for each new task. However, reconfiguring just the mechanism is not sufficient: each design also requires…
Generating dynamic jumping motions on legged robots remains a challenging control problem as the full flight phase and large landing impact are expected. Compared to quadrupedal robots or other multi-legged robots, bipedal robots place…
Quadrupedal robots resemble the physical ability of legged animals to walk through unstructured terrains. However, designing a controller for quadrupedal robots poses a significant challenge due to their functional complexity and requires…
We are seeking control design paradigms for legged systems that allow bypassing costly algorithms that depend on heavy on-board computers widely used in these systems and yet being able to match what they can do by using less expensive…
Learning controllers that reproduce legged locomotion in nature has been a long-time goal in robotics and computer graphics. While yielding promising results, recent approaches are not yet flexible enough to be applicable to legged systems…