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Although robotic manipulators are used in an ever-growing range of applications, robot manufacturers typically follow a ``one-fits-all'' philosophy, employing identical manipulators in various settings. This often leads to suboptimal…
We argue that hierarchical methods can become the key for modular robots achieving reconfigurability. We present a hierarchical approach for modular robots that allows a robot to simultaneously learn multiple tasks. Our evaluation results…
Industrial robots are designed as general-purpose hardware with limited ability to adapt to changing task requirements or environments. Modular robots, on the other hand, offer flexibility and can be easily customized to suit diverse needs.…
Achieving long term autonomy of robots operating in dynamic environments such as farms remains a significant challenge. Arguably, the most demanding factors to achieve this are the on-board resource constraints such as energy, planning in…
For a robot to be perfect and enter the everyday life of humans,like computers did, it needs to move from special-purpose robots to general-purpose. So, the idea of modularity is considered in this project.Thus, any type of task that falls…
Modular robots can be tailored to achieve specific tasks and rearranged to achieve previously infeasible ones. The challenge is choosing an appropriate design from a large search space. In this work, we describe a framework that…
Poultry farming plays a pivotal role in addressing human food demand. Robots are emerging as promising tools in poultry farming, with the potential to address sustainability issues while meeting the increasing production needs and demand…
This paper presents CONCERT, a fully reconfigurable modular collaborative robot (cobot) for multiple on-site operations in a construction site. CONCERT has been designed to support human activities in construction sites by leveraging two…
This article presents initial configuration work and use of the robotic platform and manipulator in question. The development of the ideal configuration for using this robot serves as a guide for new users and also validates its…
This paper introduces two field transportation robots. Both robots are equipped with transformable wheel-leg modules, which can smoothly switch between operation modes and can work in various challenging terrains. SWhegPro, with six…
This paper presents a closed-loop automation framework for heterogeneous modular robots, covering the full pipeline from morphological construction to adaptive control. In this framework, a mobile manipulator handles heterogeneous…
This chapter is about the fundamentals of fabrication, control, and human-robot interaction of a new type of collaborative robotic manipulators, called malleable robots, which are based on adjustable architectures of varying stiffness for…
Language-conditioned policies allow robots to interpret and execute human instructions. Learning such policies requires a substantial investment with regards to time and compute resources. Still, the resulting controllers are highly…
In this paper, we present the development of 4-DOF robot limbs, which we call Moonbots, designed to connect in various configurations with each other and wheel modules, enabling adaptation to different environments and tasks. These modular…
A robotic platform for mobile manipulation needs to satisfy two contradicting requirements for many real-world applications: A compact base is required to navigate through cluttered indoor environments, while the support needs to be large…
This letter introduces HOPPY, an open-source, low-cost, robust, and modular kit for robotics education. The robot dynamically hops around a rotating gantry with a fixed base. The kit lowers the entry barrier for studying dynamic robots and…
For mobile robots to be effectively applied to real world unstructured environments -- such as large scale farming -- they require the ability to generate adaptive plans that account both for limited onboard resources, and the presence of…
Animals, such as birds, widely use multi-modal locomotion by combining legged and aerial mobility with dominant inertial effects. The robotic biomimicry of this multi-modal locomotion feat can yield ultra-flexible systems in terms of their…
Traditional aerial vehicles are constrained to perform specific tasks due to their adhoc designs. Based on modularity, we propose a versatile robot, H-ModQuad, that can adapt to different tasks by increasing its load capacity and actuated…
Many current robot designs prioritize efficiency and one-size-fits-all solutions, oftentimes overlooking personalization, adaptability, and sustainability. To explore alternatives, we conducted two co-design workshops with 23 participants,…