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Soft, vine-inspired growing robots that move by eversion are highly mobile in confined environments, but, when faced with gaps in the environment, they may collapse under their own weight while navigating a desired path. In this work, we…
ReachBot, a proposed robotic platform, employs extendable booms as limbs for mobility in challenging environments, such as martian caves. When attached to the environment, ReachBot acts as a parallel robot, with reconfiguration driven by…
Being motivated by ceiling inspection applications via unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) which require close proximity flight to surfaces, a systematic control approach enabling safe and accurate close proximity flight is proposed in this…
This paper describes a set of experiments involving small helicopters landing automated landing at unusual attitudes. By leveraging the increased agility of small air vehicles, we show that it is possible to automatically land a small…
The interaction of robots with bendable objects in midair presents significant challenges in control, often resulting in performance degradation and potential crashes, especially for aerial robots due to their limited actuation capabilities…
Electroadhesion (EA) provides electrically switchable adhesion and is a promising mechanism for perching micro aerial robots on smooth surfaces. However, practical implementations of soft and stretchable EA pads for aerial perching remain…
Operating drones in urban environments often means they need to land on rooftops, which can have different geometries and surface irregularities. Accurately detecting roof inclination using conventional sensing methods, such as vision-based…
We consider the problem of controlling an aerial robot connected to the ground by a passive cable or a passive rigid link. We provide a thorough characterization of this nonlinear dynamical robotic system in terms of fundamental properties…
Multirotor aerial robots are becoming widely used for the inspection of powerlines. To enable continuous, robust inspection without human intervention, the robots must be able to perch on the powerlines to recharge their batteries. Highly…
This paper proposes a novel learning-free three-stage method that predicts grasping poses, enabling robots to pick up and transfer previously unseen objects. Our method first identifies potential structures that can afford the action of…
Autonomous multirotor landings on uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) are critical for persistent maritime operations but remain challenging due to wave-induced tilt, wind disturbances, and limited landing area. Many existing approaches exhibit…
Robot-to-human handovers often rely on static, open-loop strategies (or, at best, approaches that adapt only the position), which generally do not consider how the object will be grasped by the human, thus requiring the user to adapt. This…
The 3D flight control of a flapping wing robot is a very challenging problem. The robot stabilizes and controls its pose through the aerodynamic forces acting on the wing membrane which has complex dynamics and it is difficult to develop a…
We introduce a Task-Level Iterative Learning Control method for dynamic manipulation of ropes. We demonstrate this method on a non-planar rope manipulation task called the flying knot. Using a single human demonstration and a simplified…
Achieving both agile maneuverability and high energy efficiency in aerial robots, particularly in dynamic wind environments, remains challenging. Conventional thruster-powered systems offer agility but suffer from high energy consumption,…
In this paper, we propose a novel approach on controlling wheel-legged quadrupedal robots using pose optimization and force control via quadratic programming (QP). Our method allows the robot to leverage the whole-body motion and the wheel…
Legged robots leverage ground contacts and the reaction forces they provide to achieve agile locomotion. However, uncertainty coupled with contact discontinuities can lead to failure, especially in real-world environments with unexpected…
This paper explores the design strategies for hybrid pole- or trunk-climbing robots, focusing on methods to inform design decisions and assess metrics such as adaptability and performance. A wheeled-grasping hybrid robot with modular,…
The request for fast response and safe operation after natural and man-made disasters in urban environments has spurred the development of robotic systems designed to assist in search and rescue operations within complex rubble sites.…
Inspired by Chukars wing-assisted incline running (WAIR), in this work, we employ a high-fidelity model of our Husky Carbon quadrupedal-legged robot to walk over steep slopes of up to 45 degrees. Chukars use the aerodynamic forces generated…