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Re-planning in legged locomotion is crucial to track the desired user velocity while adapting to the terrain and rejecting external disturbances. In this work, we propose and test in experiments a real-time Nonlinear Model Predictive…
Flexible robots may overcome some of the industry's major challenges, such as enabling intrinsically safe human-robot collaboration and achieving a higher payload-to-mass ratio. However, controlling flexible robots is complicated due to…
Trajectory optimization under uncertainties is a challenging problem for robots in contact with the environment. Such uncertainties are inevitable due to estimation errors, control imperfections, and model mismatches between planning models…
The hierarchical quadratic programming (HQP) is commonly applied to consider strict hierarchies of multi-tasks and robot's physical inequality constraints during whole-body compliance. However, for the one-step HQP, the solution can…
This paper presents a novel approach to enhance Model Predictive Control (MPC) for legged robots through Distributed Optimization. Our method focuses on decomposing the robot dynamics into smaller, parallelizable subsystems, and utilizing…
Ensuring safe and effective collaboration between humans and autonomous legged robots is a fundamental challenge in shared autonomy, particularly for teleoperated systems navigating cluttered environments. Conventional shared-control…
Model predictive control (MPC) combined with reduced-order template models has emerged as a powerful tool for trajectory optimization in dynamic legged locomotion. However, loco-manipulation tasks performed by legged robots introduce…
Recent progress in legged locomotion has rendered quadruped manipulators a promising solution for performing tasks that require both mobility and manipulation (loco-manipulation). In the real world, task specifications and/or environment…
In this paper, we propose, discuss, and validate an online Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) method for multi-rotor aerial systems with arbitrarily positioned and oriented rotors which simultaneously addresses the local reference…
Fast feedback control and safety guarantees are essential in modern robotics. We present an approach that achieves both by combining novel robust model predictive control (MPC) with function approximation via (deep) neural networks (NNs).…
The computational power of mobile robots is currently insufficient to achieve torque level whole-body Model Predictive Control (MPC) at the update rates required for complex dynamic systems such as legged robots. This problem is commonly…
Convex model predictive controls (MPCs) with a single rigid body model have demonstrated strong performance on real legged robots. However, convex MPCs are limited by their assumptions such as small rotation angle and pre-defined gait,…
The use of exoskeleton robots is increasing due to the rising number of musculoskeletal injuries. However, their effectiveness depends heavily on the design of control systems. Designing robust controllers is challenging because of…
Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) is a precise controller, but its heavy computational load often prevents application in robotic systems. Some studies have attempted to approximate NMPC using deep neural networks (NMPC-DNN).…
Dynamic legged locomotion is a challenging topic because of the lack of established control schemes which can handle aerial phases, short stance times, and high-speed leg swings. In this paper, we propose a controller combining whole-body…
Motion Cueing Algorithms (MCAs) encode the movement of simulated vehicles into movement that can be reproduced with a motion simulator to provide a realistic driving experience within the capabilities of the machine. This paper introduces a…
Quadruped robots excel in traversing complex, unstructured environments where wheeled robots often fail. However, enabling efficient and adaptable locomotion remains challenging due to the quadrupeds' nonlinear dynamics, high degrees of…
This work combines control barrier functions (CBFs) with a whole-body controller to enable self-collision avoidance for the MIT Humanoid. Existing reactive controllers for self-collision avoidance cannot guarantee collision-free…
Humanoid robots often face significant balance issues due to the motion of their heavy limbs. These challenges are particularly pronounced when attempting dynamic motion or operating in environments with irregular terrain. To address this…
Human beings can utilize multiple balance strategies, e.g. step location adjustment and angular momentum adaptation, to maintain balance when walking under dynamic disturbances. In this work, we propose a novel Nonlinear Model Predictive…