Related papers: The interplay of fatigue dynamics and task achieve…
We consider the problem of stochastic optimal control, where the state-feedback control policies take the form of a probability distribution and where a penalty on the entropy is added. By viewing the cost function as a Kullback- Leibler…
We study the efficiency of sliding locomotion for three-link bodies in the presence of dry (Coulomb) friction. Friction coefficient space can be partitioned into several regions, each with distinct types of efficient kinematics. These…
The problem of optimal motion planing and control is fundamental in robotics. However, this problem is intractable for continuous-time stochastic systems in general and the solution is difficult to approximate if non-instantaneous nonlinear…
Accurate estimation of 3D human motion from monocular video requires modeling both kinematics (body motion without physical forces) and dynamics (motion with physical forces). To demonstrate this, we present SimPoE, a Simulation-based…
Due to the visual ambiguity, purely kinematic formulations on monocular human motion capture are often physically incorrect, biomechanically implausible, and can not reconstruct accurate interactions. In this work, we focus on exploiting…
Generalizable manipulation requires that robots be able to interact with novel objects and environment. This requirement makes manipulation extremely challenging as a robot has to reason about complex frictional interaction with uncertainty…
Optimal control is often used in robotics for planning a trajectory to achieve some desired behavior, as expressed by the cost function. Most works in optimal control focus on finding a single optimal trajectory, which is then typically…
This article addresses obstacle avoidance motion planning for autonomous vehicles, specifically focusing on highway overtaking maneuvers. The control design challenge is handled by considering a mathematical vehicle model that captures both…
In this paper, we present an approach for generating a variety of whole-body motions for a humanoid robot. We extend the available Model Predictive Control (MPC) approaches for walking on flat terrain to plan for both vertical motion of the…
This paper considers the optimal control problem of an extended spring-loaded inverted pendulum (SLIP) model with two additional actuators for active leg length and hip torque modulation. These additional features arise naturally in…
Optimal control of stochastic nonlinear dynamical systems is a major challenge in the domain of robot learning. Given the intractability of the global control problem, state-of-the-art algorithms focus on approximate sequential optimization…
We introduce a new and efficient numerical method for multicriterion optimal control and single criterion optimal control under integral constraints. The approach is based on extending the state space to include information on a "budget"…
Navigating a collision-free and optimal trajectory for a robot is a challenging task, particularly in environments with moving obstacles such as humans. We formulate this problem as a stochastic optimal control problem. Since solving the…
Despite the numerous advances, reinforcement learning remains away from widespread acceptance for autonomous controller design as compared to classical methods due to lack of ability to effectively tackle the reality gap. The reliance on…
A systematic and automated framework for developing closed-loop flow control strategies is proposed, integrating suboptimal control theory [Lee et al., J. Fluid Mech. 358, 245 (1998)] with Bayesian optimization. The approach is demonstrated…
In this paper, we devise methods for the multi- objective control of humanoid robots, a.k.a. prioritized whole- body controllers, that achieve efficiency and robustness in the algorithmic computations. We use a form of whole-body…
This paper studies optimal motion planning subject to motion and environment uncertainties. By modeling the system as a probabilistic labeled Markov decision process (PL-MDP), the control objective is to synthesize a finite-memory policy,…
Reinforcement learning can acquire complex behaviors from high-level specifications. However, defining a cost function that can be optimized effectively and encodes the correct task is challenging in practice. We explore how inverse optimal…
The acceptance of automated driving is under the potential threat of motion sickness. It hinders the passengers' willingness to perform secondary activities. In order to mitigate motion sickness in automated vehicles, we propose an…
This paper studies the attitude control of a satellite in three-axis by thrusters. The mathematical model of attitude dynamics and kinematics of the satellite is represented as a switched system with sub-systems. Each sub-system is defined…