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Related papers: Contact Models in Robotics: a Comparative Analysis

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Reinforcement learning has emerged as a promising methodology for training robot controllers. However, most results have been limited to simulation due to the need for a large number of samples and the lack of automated-yet-safe data…

Robotics · Computer Science 2018-03-29 Kendall Lowrey , Svetoslav Kolev , Jeremy Dao , Aravind Rajeswaran , Emanuel Todorov

Daily tasks require us to use our whole body to manipulate objects, for instance when our hands are unavailable. We consider the issue of providing humanoid robots with the ability to autonomously perform similar whole-body manipulation…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-10-28 Victor Levé , João Moura , Sachiya Fujita , Tamon Miyake , Steve Tonneau , Sethu Vijayakumar

Conventional methods of quantum simulation involve trade-offs that limit their applicability to specific contexts where their use is optimal. In particular, the interaction picture simulation has been found to provide substantial asymptotic…

Quantum Physics · Physics 2022-08-17 Abhishek Rajput , Alessandro Roggero , Nathan Wiebe

This paper explores an eclectic range of path-planning methodologies engineered for rolling surfaces. Our focus is on the kinematic intricacies of rolling contact systems, which are investigated through a motion planning lens. Beyond…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-01-09 Seyed Amir Tafrishi , Mikhail Svinin , Kenji Tahara

Contact-rich manipulation tasks with stiff frictional elements like connector insertion are difficult to model with rigid-body simulators. In this work, we propose a new approach for modeling these environments by learning a quasi-static…

Robotics · Computer Science 2023-12-15 Kevin Tracy , Zachary Manchester , Ajinkya Jain , Keegan Go , Stefan Schaal , Tom Erez , Yuval Tassa

Dynamics simulation with frictional contacts is important for a wide range of applications, from cloth simulation to object manipulation. Recent methods using smoothed lagged friction forces have enabled robust and differentiable simulation…

Graphics · Computer Science 2024-08-01 Egor Larionov , Andreas Longva , Uri M. Ascher , Jan Bender , Dinesh K. Pai

Social robot navigation is an evolving research field that aims to find efficient strategies to safely navigate dynamic environments populated by humans. A critical challenge in this domain is the accurate modeling of human motion, which…

Human-Computer Interaction · Computer Science 2025-07-01 Tommaso Van Der Meer , Andrea Garulli , Antonio Giannitrapani , Renato Quartullo

Contact-rich tasks pose significant challenges for robotic systems due to inherent uncertainty, complex dynamics, and the high risk of damage during interaction. Recent advances in learning-based control have shown great potential in…

Robotics · Computer Science 2026-01-27 Heng Zhang , Rui Dai , Gokhan Solak , Pokuang Zhou , Yu She , Arash Ajoudani

Many robot manipulation tasks require the robot to make and break contact with objects and surfaces. The dynamics of such changing-contact robot manipulation tasks are discontinuous when contact is made or broken, and continuous elsewhere.…

Robotics · Computer Science 2021-06-22 Saif Sidhik , Mohan Sridharan , Dirk Ruiken

Contact modeling plays a central role in motion planning, simulation, and control of legged robots, as legged locomotion is realized through contact. The two prevailing approaches to model the contact consider rigid and compliant premise at…

Modern robotic manipulation primarily relies on visual observations in a 2D color space for skill learning but suffers from poor generalization. In contrast, humans, living in a 3D world, depend more on physical properties-such as distance,…

Humanoid robots are machines built with an anthropomorphic shape. Despite decades of research into the subject, it is still challenging to tackle the robot locomotion problem from an algorithmic point of view. For example, these machines…

Robotics · Computer Science 2020-04-28 Stefano Dafarra

Soft robots offer an alternative approach to manipulate inside the constrained space while maintaining the safe interaction with the external environment. Due to its adaptable compliance characteristic, external contact force can easily…

Robotics · Computer Science 2019-06-28 Yue Chen , Long Wang , Kevin Galloway , Isuru Godage , Nabil Simaan , Eric Barth

Contact detection for continuum and soft robots has been limited in past works to statics or kinematics-based methods with assumed circular bending curvature or known bending profiles. In this paper, we adapt the generalized momentum…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-05-07 Garrison L. H. Johnston , Neel Shihora , Nabil Simaan

We present a contact mechanics problem, which we consider to be representative for contacts between nominally flat surfaces. The main ingredients of the mathematically fully defined contact problem are: Self-affine roughness, linear…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2015-12-09 Martin H. Müser , Wolf B. Dapp

Humanoid robotics has strong potential to transform daily service and caregiving applications. Although recent advances in general motion tracking within physics engines (GMT) have enabled virtual characters and humanoid robots to reproduce…

Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition · Computer Science 2026-04-14 Yuto Shibata , Kashu Yamazaki , Lalit Jayanti , Yoshimitsu Aoki , Mariko Isogawa , Katerina Fragkiadaki

Real-life control tasks involve matters of various substances---rigid or soft bodies, liquid, gas---each with distinct physical behaviors. This poses challenges to traditional rigid-body physics engines. Particle-based simulators have been…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-04-19 Yunzhu Li , Jiajun Wu , Russ Tedrake , Joshua B. Tenenbaum , Antonio Torralba

Passive deformation due to compliance is a commonly used benefit of soft robots, providing opportunities to achieve robust actuation with few active degrees of freedom. Soft growing robots in particular have shown promise in navigation of…

Robotics · Computer Science 2026-04-21 Francesco Fuentes , Serigne Diagne , Zachary Kingston , Laura H. Blumenschein

Soft slender robots have attracted more and more research attentions in these years due to their continuity and compliance natures. However, mechanics modeling for soft robots interacting with environment is still an academic challenge…

Robotics · Computer Science 2023-07-13 Lingxiao Xun , Gang Zheng , Alexandre Kruszewski

Design of robots at the small scale is a trial-and-error based process, which is costly and time-consuming. There are no good dynamic simulation tools to predict the motion or performance of a microrobot as it moves against a substrate. At…

Robotics · Computer Science 2019-07-31 Jiayin Xie , Chenghao Bi , David J. Cappelleri , Nilanjan Chakraborty