Related papers: Stein Variational Guided Model Predictive Path Int…
Accurately controlling a robotic system in real time is a challenging problem. To address this, the robotics community has adopted various algorithms, such as Model Predictive Control (MPC) and Model Predictive Path Integral (MPPI) control.…
Recently, Model Predictive Path Integral (MPPI) control algorithm has been extensively applied to autonomous navigation tasks, where the cost map is mostly assumed to be known and the 2D navigation tasks are only performed. In this paper,…
Automated vehicles require efficient and safe planning to maneuver in uncertain environments. Largely this uncertainty is caused by other traffic participants, e.g., surrounding vehicles. Future motion of surrounding vehicles is often…
We present a sampling-based model predictive control (MPC) framework that enables emergent locomotion without relying on handcrafted gait patterns or predefined contact sequences. Our method discovers diverse motion patterns, ranging from…
This paper considers optimal control of dynamical systems which are represented by nonlinear stochastic differential equations. It is well-known that the optimal control policy for this problem can be obtained as a function of a value…
This paper presents a novel approach to motion planning for two-wheeled drones that can drive on the ground and fly in the air. Conventional methods for two-wheeled drone motion planning typically rely on gradient-based optimization and…
Navigating safely in dynamic and uncertain environments is challenging due to uncertainties in perception and motion. This letter presents the Chance-Constrained Unscented Model Predictive Path Integral (C2U-MPPI) framework, a robust…
Motion planning for autonomous driving must account for multi-modal uncertainty in both the intentions and trajectories of surrounding vehicles. Handling uncertainty in a worst-case manner guarantees robustness but often leads to excessive…
Motion planning for autonomous vehicles (AVs) in dense traffic is challenging, often leading to overly conservative behavior and unmet planning objectives. This challenge stems from the AVs' limited ability to anticipate and respond to the…
Sampling-based model-predictive controllers have become a powerful optimization tool for planning and control problems in various challenging environments. In this paper, we show how the default choice of uncorrelated Gaussian distributions…
Recently path integral methods have been developed for stochastic optimal control for a wide class of models with non-linear dynamics in continuous space-time. Path integral methods find the control that minimizes the expected cost-to-go.…
Designing controllers that are both safe and performant is inherently challenging. This co-optimization can be formulated as a constrained optimal control problem, where the cost function represents the performance criterion and safety is…
Optimizing trajectory costs for nonlinear control systems remains a significant challenge. Model Predictive Control (MPC), particularly sampling-based approaches such as the Model Predictive Path Integral (MPPI) method, has recently…
Motion planning for robotic manipulators is a fundamental problem in robotics. Classical optimization-based methods typically rely on the gradients of signed distance fields (SDFs) to impose collision-avoidance constraints. However, these…
Articulated vehicles such as tractor-trailers, yard trucks, and similar platforms must often reverse and maneuver in cluttered spaces where pedestrians are present. We present how Barrier-Rate guided Model Predictive Path Integral (BR-MPPI)…
This paper presents a hybrid trajectory optimization method designed to generate collision-free, smooth trajectories for autonomous mobile robots. By combining sampling-based Model Predictive Path Integral (MPPI) control with gradient-based…
In this paper, we present a Model Predictive Control (MPC) framework based on path velocity decomposition paradigm for autonomous driving. The optimization underlying the MPC has a two layer structure wherein first, an appropriate path is…
Autonomous vehicles that operate in urban environments shall comply with existing rules and reason about the interactions with other decision-making agents. In this paper, we introduce a decentralized and communication-free…
We show how to use Stein variational gradient descent (SVGD) to carry out inference in Gaussian process (GP) models with non-Gaussian likelihoods and large data volumes. Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) is extremely computationally intensive…
We consider the problem of sampling transition paths between two given metastable states of a molecular system, e.g. a folded and unfolded protein or products and reactants of a chemical reaction. Due to the existence of high energy…