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We present a new open-source torque-controlled legged robot system, with a low-cost and low-complexity actuator module at its core. It consists of a high-torque brushless DC motor and a low-gear-ratio transmission suitable for impedance and…
Data-driven joint-moment predictors offer a scalable alternative to laboratory-based inverse-dynamics pipelines for biomechanics estimation and exoskeleton control. Meanwhile, physics-based reinforcement learning (RL) enables…
Modern, torque-controlled service robots can regulate contact forces when interacting with their environment. Model Predictive Control (MPC) is a powerful method to solve the underlying control problem, allowing to plan for whole-body…
The age and stroke-associated decline in musculoskeletal strength degrades the ability to perform daily human tasks using the upper extremities. Although there are a few examples of exoskeletons, they need manual operations due to the…
Lower limb exoskeletons show promise to assist human movement, but their utility is limited by controllers designed for discrete, predefined actions in controlled environments, restricting their real-world applicability. We present an…
This paper presents a novel approach to evaluating back support exoskeletons (BSEs) in workplace settings addressing the limitations of traditional methods like electromyography (EMG), which are impractical due to their sensitivity to…
We present a personal mobility device for lower-body impaired users through a light-weighted exoskeleton on wheels. On its core, a novel passive exoskeleton provides postural transition leveraging natural body postures with support to the…
Balance and gait disorders are the second leading cause of falls, which, along with consequent injuries, are reported as major public health problems all over the world. For patients who do not require mechanical support, vibrotactile…
Scalable learning of dexterous manipulation remains bottlenecked by the difficulty of collecting natural, high-fidelity human demonstrations of multi-finger hands due to occlusion, complex hand kinematics, and contact-rich interactions. We…
Powered prostheses are capable of providing net positive work to amputees and have advanced in the past two decades. However, reducing amputee metabolic cost of walking remains an open problem. The Law of Intersegmental Coordination (ISC)…
A common approach to the generation of walking patterns for humanoid robots consists in adopting a layered control architecture. This paper proposes an architecture composed of three nested control loops. The outer loop exploits a robot…
Complex robotic systems require whole-body controllers to deal with contact interactions, handle closed kinematic chains, and track task-space control objectives. However, for many applications, safety-critical controllers are important to…
Learning from real-world robot demonstrations holds promise for interacting with complex real-world environments. However, the complexity and variability of interaction dynamics often cause purely positional controllers to struggle with…
Human-like motion is a primary goal for many robotic assistive devices. Emulating the strategy of the human neuromuscular system may aid the control of such powered devices, yet many challenges remain. In this study, we investigated the…
We propose a robust dynamic walking controller consisting of a dynamic locomotion planner, a reinforcement learning process for robustness, and a novel whole-body locomotion controller (WBLC). Previous approaches specify either the position…
Parallel robots provide the potential to be leveraged for human-robot collaboration (HRC) due to low collision energies even at high speeds resulting from their reduced moving masses. However, the risk of unintended contact with the leg…
In recent years, the focus on developing robot manipulators has shifted towards prioritizing safety in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). Impedance control is a typical approach for interaction control in collaboration tasks. However, such a…
In this work, we present an extension to a linear Model Predictive Control (MPC) scheme that plans external contact forces for the robot when given multiple contact locations and their corresponding friction cone. To this end, we set up a…
Assistive robotic devices, like soft lower-limb exoskeletons or exosuits, are widely spreading with the promise of helping people in everyday life. To make such systems adaptive to the variety of users wearing them, it is desirable to endow…
Human walkers traverse diverse environments and demonstrate different gait locomotion and energy cost on granular terrains compared to solid ground. We present a stiffness-based model predictive control approach of knee exoskeleton…