Related papers: RoPotter: Toward Robotic Pottery and Deformable Ob…
Reliable robotic grasping, especially with deformable objects such as fruits, remains a challenging task due to underactuated contact interactions with a gripper, unknown object dynamics and geometries. In this study, we propose a…
One of the difficulties imposed on the manipulation of deformable objects is their characterization and the detection of representative keypoints for the purpose of manipulation. A keen interest was manifested by researchers in the last…
Manipulation of deformable Linear objects (DLOs), including iron wire, rubber, silk, and nylon rope, is ubiquitous in daily life. These objects exhibit diverse physical properties, such as Young$'$s modulus and bending stiffness.Such…
Teaching a multi-fingered dexterous robot to grasp objects in the real world has been a challenging problem due to its high dimensional state and action space. We propose a robot-learning system that can take a small number of human…
This paper addresses two intertwined needs for collaborative robots operating in shop-floor environments. The first is the ability to perform complex manipulation operations, such as those on articulated or even flexible objects, in a way…
Deformable linear objects (e.g., cables, ropes, and threads) commonly appear in our everyday lives. However, perception of these objects and the study of physical interaction with them is still a growing area. There have already been…
Reinforcement learning (RL) and sim-to-real transfer have advanced rigid-object manipulation. However, policies remain brittle for articulated mechanisms due to contact-rich dynamics that require both stable grasping and simultaneous free…
This paper presents a method for constrained motion planning from vision, which enables a robot to move its end-effector over an observed surface, given start and destination points. The robot has no prior knowledge of the surface shape,…
Legged robots can have a unique role in manipulating objects in dynamic, human-centric, or otherwise inaccessible environments. Although most legged robotics research to date typically focuses on traversing these challenging environments,…
Real-life control tasks involve matters of various substances---rigid or soft bodies, liquid, gas---each with distinct physical behaviors. This poses challenges to traditional rigid-body physics engines. Particle-based simulators have been…
In robotic grasping, objects are often occluded in ungraspable configurations such that no pregrasp pose can be found, eg large flat boxes on the table that can only be grasped from the side. Inspired by humans' bimanual manipulation, eg…
Gripping and holding of objects are key tasks for robotic manipulators. The development of universal grippers able to pick up unfamiliar objects of widely varying shape and surface properties remains, however, challenging. Most current…
Representing articulated objects remains a difficult problem within the field of robotics. Objects such as pliers, clamps, or cabinets require representations that capture not only geometry and color information, but also part seperation,…
Dexterous intelligence -- the ability to perform complex interactions with multi-fingered hands -- is a pinnacle of human physical intelligence and emergent higher-order cognitive skills. However, contrary to Moravec's paradox, dexterous…
Many robotic tasks involving some form of 3D visual perception greatly benefit from a complete knowledge of the working environment. However, robots often have to tackle unstructured environments and their onboard visual sensors can only…
Learning to manipulate objects efficiently, particularly those involving sustained contact (e.g., pushing, sliding) and articulated parts (e.g., drawers, doors), presents significant challenges. Traditional methods, such as robot-centric…
Robotic manipulation is challenging due to discontinuous dynamics, as well as high-dimensional state and action spaces. Data-driven approaches that succeed in manipulation tasks require large amounts of data and expert demonstrations,…
The realm of textiles spans clothing, households, healthcare, sports, and industrial applications. The deformable nature of these objects poses unique challenges that prior work on rigid objects cannot fully address. The increasing interest…
Planning robotic manipulation tasks, especially those that involve interaction between deformable and rigid objects, is challenging due to the complexity in predicting such interactions. We introduce SPONGE, a sequence planning pipeline…
Object grasping is an important ability required for various robot tasks. In particular, tasks that require precise force adjustments during operation, such as grasping an unknown object or using a grasped tool, are difficult for humans to…