Related papers: Direction-Constrained Control for Efficient Physic…

Recent studies on quadruped robots have focused on either locomotion or mobile manipulation using a robotic arm. Legged robots can manipulate heavier and larger objects using non-prehensile manipulation primitives, such as planar pushing,…

Safety is crucial for robotic missions within an uncertain environment. Common safety requirements such as collision avoidance are only state-dependent, which can be restrictive for complex missions. In this work, we address a more general…

In this paper, we devise methods for the multi- objective control of humanoid robots, a.k.a. prioritized whole- body controllers, that achieve efficiency and robustness in the algorithmic computations. We use a form of whole-body…

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…

Modern lightweight dual-arm robots bring the physical capabilities to quickly take over tasks at typical industrial workplaces designed for workers. In times of mass-customization, low setup times including the instructing/specifying of new…

Many robotics tasks, such as path planning or trajectory optimization, are formulated as optimal control problems (OCPs). The key to obtaining high performance lies in the design of the OCP's objective function. In practice, the objective…

To facilitate natural and intuitive interactions with diverse user groups in real-world settings, social robots must be capable of addressing the varying requirements and expectations of these groups while adapting their behavior based on…

In many human-in-the-loop robotic applications such as robot-assisted surgery and remote teleoperation, predicting the intended motion of the human operator may be useful for successful implementation of shared control, guidance virtual…

Robots can serve as safety catalysts on construction job sites by taking over hazardous and repetitive tasks while alleviating the risks associated with existing manual workflows. Research on the safety of physical human-robot interaction…

This paper presents an Impedance Primitive-augmented hierarchical reinforcement learning framework for efficient robotic manipulation in sequential contact tasks. We leverage this hierarchical structure to sequentially execute behavior…

We are motivated by the real challenges presented in a human-robot system to develop new designs that are efficient at data level and with performance guarantees such as stability and optimality at systems level. Existing…

This paper presents a Mixed-Initiative (MI) framework for addressing the problem of control authority transfer between a remote human operator and an AI agent when cooperatively controlling a mobile robot. Our Hierarchical Expert-guided…

In intelligent manufacturing, robots are asked to dynamically adapt their behaviours without reducing productivity. Human teaching, where an operator physically interacts with the robot to demonstrate a new task, is a promising strategy to…

In this paper, we address a coordination problem for connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) in mixed traffic settings with human-driven vehicles (HDVs). The main objective is to have a safe and optimal crossing order for vehicles…

Urban search and rescue missions require rapid first response to minimize loss of life and damage. Often, such efforts are assisted by humanitarian robots which need to handle dynamic operational conditions such as uneven and rough…

Decision-making in robotics using denoising diffusion processes has increasingly become a hot research topic, but end-to-end policies perform poorly in tasks with rich contact and have limited controllability. This paper proposes…

Variable impedance control is advantageous for physical human-robot interaction to improve safety, adaptability and many other aspects. This paper presents a gain-scheduled variable stiffness control approach under strict frequency-domain…

As autonomous vehicles (AVs) become increasingly prevalent, their interaction with human drivers presents a critical challenge. Current AVs lack social awareness, causing behavior that is often awkward or unsafe. To combat this, social AVs,…

Whole-body control for humanoids is challenging due to the high-dimensional nature of the problem, coupled with the inherent instability of a bipedal morphology. Learning from visual observations further exacerbates this difficulty. In this…

Close human-robot interaction (HRI), especially in industrial scenarios, has been vastly investigated for the advantages of combining human and robot skills. For an effective HRI, the validity of currently available human-machine…