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This paper presents a novel cross-modal visuo-tactile perception framework for the 3D shape reconstruction of deformable linear objects (DLOs), with a specific focus on cables subject to severe visual occlusions. Unlike existing methods…
Most successes in robotic manipulation have been restricted to single-arm robots, which limits the range of solvable tasks to pick-and-place, insertion, and objects rearrangement. In contrast, dual and multi arm robot platforms unlock a…
For the shape control of deformable free-form surfaces, simulation plays a crucial role in establishing the mapping between the actuation parameters and the deformed shapes. The differentiation of this forward kinematic mapping is usually…
The industrial insertion of flexible flat cables (FFCs) into receptacles presents a significant challenge owing to the need for submillimeter precision when handling the deformable cables. In manufacturing processes, FFC insertion with…
Flexible elastic structures, such as beams, rods, ribbons, plates, and shells, exhibit complex nonlinear dynamical behaviors that are central to a wide range of engineering and scientific applications, including soft robotics, deployable…
Deformable object manipulation remains a key challenge in developing autonomous robotic systems that can be successfully deployed in real-world scenarios. In this work, we explore the challenges of deformable object manipulation through the…
Optimal control of parametric partial differential equations (PDEs) is crucial in many applications in engineering and science. In recent years, the progress in scientific machine learning has opened up new frontiers for the control of…
Recently, learning-based controllers have been shown to push mobile robotic systems to their limits and provide the robustness needed for many real-world applications. However, only classical optimization-based control frameworks offer the…
Differentiable physics is a powerful approach to learning and control problems that involve physical objects and environments. While notable progress has been made, the capabilities of differentiable physics solvers remain limited. We…
Soft-growing robots (i.e., vine robots) are a promising class of soft robots that allow for navigation and growth in tightly confined environments. However, these robots remain challenging to model and control due to the complex interplay…
The ability to manipulate tools significantly expands the set of tasks a robot can perform. Yet, tool manipulation represents a challenging class of dexterity, requiring grasping thin objects, in-hand object rotations, and forceful…
Animals use limbs for both locomotion and manipulation. We aim to equip quadruped robots with similar versatility. This work introduces a system that enables quadruped robots to interact with objects using their legs, inspired by…
MultiDLO is a real-time algorithm for estimating the shapes of multiple, intertwining deformable linear objects (DLOs) from RGB-D image sequences. Unlike prior methods that track only a single DLO, MultiDLO simultaneously handles several…
An optimal control problem for longitudinal motions of a thin elastic rod is considered. We suppose that a normal force, which changes piecewise constantly along the rod's length, is applied to the cross-section so that the positions of…
Slender structures, such as rods, often exhibit large nonlinear geometrical deformations even under moderate external forces (e.g., gravity). This characteristic results in a rich variety of morphological changes, making them appealing for…
Robot arms with lighter weight can reduce unnecessary energy consumption which is desirable in robotic industry. However, lightweight arms undergo undesirable elastic deformation. In this paper, the planar motion of a lightweight flexible…
Soft robots are well suited for contact-rich tasks due to their compliance, yet this property makes accurate and tractable modeling challenging. Planning motions with dynamically-feasible trajectories requires models that capture arbitrary…
Robotic manipulation of deformable objects remains a challenging task. One such task is folding a garment autonomously. Given start and end folding positions, what is an optimal trajectory to move the robotic arm to fold a garment? Certain…
Existing learning approaches to dexterous manipulation use demonstrations or interactions with the environment to train black-box neural networks that provide little control over how the robot learns the skills or how it would perform post…
The Piecewise Constant Curvature (PCC) model is the most widely used soft robotic modeling and control. However, the PCC fails to accurately describe the deformation of the soft robots when executing dynamic tasks or interacting with the…