Related papers: Real-time Contact State Estimation in Shape Contro…
This paper is concerned with the problem of estimating (interpolating and smoothing) the shape (pose and the six modes of deformation) of a slender flexible body from multiple camera measurements. This problem is important in both biology,…
Grasp force estimation can help prevent robots from damaging delicate objects during manipulation and improve learning-based robotic control. Integrating force sensing into deformable grippers negotiates trade-offs in cost, complexity,…
This paper presents a data-efficient approach to learning transferable forward models for robotic push manipulation. Our approach extends our previous work on contact-based predictors by leveraging information on the pushed object's local…
We present an approach to robotic manipulation of unknown objects through regulation of the object's contact configuration: the location, geometry, and mode of all contacts between the object, robot, and environment. A contact configuration…
This paper presents a correspondence-free, function-based sim-to-real learning method for controlling deformable freeform surfaces. Unlike traditional sim-to-real transfer methods that strongly rely on marker points with full…
Perceiving accurate 3D object shape is important for robots to interact with the physical world. Current research along this direction has been primarily relying on visual observations. Vision, however useful, has inherent limitations due…
Accurate deformable object manipulation (DOM) is essential for achieving autonomy in robotic surgery, where soft tissues are being displaced, stretched, and dissected. Many DOM methods can be powered by simulation, which ensures realistic…
As bipedal robots become more and more popular in commercial and industrial settings, the ability to control them with a high degree of reliability is critical. To that end, this paper considers how to accurately estimate which feet are…
Single-view RGB object pose estimators have reached a level of precision and efficiency that makes them good candidates for vision-based robot control. However, off-the-shelf methods lack temporal consistency and robustness that are…
We present an efficient spacetime optimization method to automatically generate animations for a general volumetric, elastically deformable body. Our approach can model the interactions between the body and the environment and automatically…
Although autonomous control of robotic manipulators has been studied for several decades, they are not commonly used in safety-critical applications due to lack of safety and performance guarantees - many of them concerning the modulation…
This paper addresses the problem of computing optimal impedance schedules for legged locomotion tasks involving complex contact interactions. We formulate the problem of impedance regulation as a trade-off between disturbance rejection and…
The hybrid nature of multi-contact robotic systems, due to making and breaking contact with the environment, creates significant challenges for high-quality control. Existing model-based methods typically rely on either good prior knowledge…
Accurate and robust modelling of large deformation three dimensional contact interaction is an important area of engineering, but it is also challenging from a computational mechanics perspective. This is particularly the case when there is…
We present an orientation adaptive controller to compensate for the effects of highly constrained environments on continuum manipulator actuation. A transformation matrix updated using optimal estimation techniques from optical flow…
We develop a real-time state estimation system to recover the pose and contact formation of an object relative to its environment. In this paper, we focus on the application of inserting an object picked by a suction cup into a tight space,…
Robots are finding new applications where physical interaction with a human is necessary: manufacturing, healthcare, and social tasks. Accordingly, the field of physical human-robot interaction (pHRI) has leveraged impedance control…
Multi-task learning of deformable object manipulation is a challenging problem in robot manipulation. Most previous works address this problem in a goal-conditioned way and adapt goal images to specify different tasks, which limits the…
This paper presents a novel vision-based proprioception approach for a soft robotic finger that can estimate and reconstruct tactile interactions in both terrestrial and aquatic environments. The key to this system lies in the finger's…
In this paper, we propose a novel and distributed formation control method for autonomous robots to follow the desired formation while tracking a moving target in dynamic environments. In our approach, the desired formations, which include…