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Robots exhibit a rich variety of symmetries arising from their mechanical structure and the properties of their tasks. Although many robotics problems exhibit several symmetries simultaneously, existing approaches typically treat them in…
This paper presents decentralized algorithms for formation control of multiple robots in three dimensions. Specifically, we leverage the mathematical properties of cyclic pursuit along with results from contraction and partial contraction…
Predictive models are a crucial component of many robotic systems. Yet, constructing accurate predictive models for a variety of deformable objects, especially those with unknown physical properties, remains a significant challenge. This…
The ability to automatically encircle boundaries with mobile robots is crucial for tasks such as border tracking and object enclosing. Previous research has primarily focused on regular boundaries, often assuming that their geometric…
We present a novel motion generation approach for robot arms, with high degrees of freedom, in complex settings that can adapt online to obstacles or new via points. Learning from Demonstration facilitates rapid adaptation to new tasks and…
In contrast to conventional robots, accurately modeling the kinematics and statics of continuum robots is challenging due to partially unknown material properties, parasitic effects, or unknown forces acting on the continuous body.…
Multi-view stereo omnidirectional distance estimation usually needs to build a cost volume with many hypothetical distance candidates. The cost volume building process is often computationally heavy considering the limited resources a…
High-performance closed-loop control of truly soft continuum manipulators has remained elusive. Experimental demonstrations have largely relied on sufficiently stiff, piecewise architectures in which each actuated segment behaves as a…
Dynamic morphing wing flights present significant challenges in accurately estimating external forces due to complex interactions between aerodynamics, rapid wing movements, and external disturbances. Traditional force estimation methods…
We describe a method for modeling the geometry of porous materials. The approach enables the independent selection of crucial parameters, including porosity, pore size distribution, pore shape, and connectivity. Consequently, it can…
Purpose of Review: As new technological advancements are made, humanoid robots that utilise them are being designed and manufactured. For optimal design choices, a broad overview with insight on the advantages and disadvantages of available…
The automatic design of robots has existed for 30 years but has been constricted by serial non-differentiable design evaluations, premature convergence to simple bodies or clumsy behaviors, and a lack of sim2real transfer to physical…
Evolutionary algorithms offer great promise for the automatic design of robot bodies, tailoring them to specific environments or tasks. Most research is done on simplified models or virtual robots in physics simulators, which do not capture…
Uncertainty-aware robot motion prediction is crucial for downstream traversability estimation and safe autonomous navigation in unstructured, off-road environments, where terrain is heterogeneous and perceptual uncertainty is high. Most…
Inspired by the concept of network algebraic connectivity, we adopt an extended notion named rigidity preservation index to characterize the rigidity property for a formation framework. A gradient based controller is proposed to ensure the…
In this paper we introduce and study a new concept of parametrised topological complexity, a topological invariant motivated by the motion planning problem of robotics. In the parametrised setting, a motion planning algorithm has high…
Practical deployments of coordinated fleets of mobile robots in different environments have revealed the benefits of maintaining small distances between robots, especially as they move at higher speeds. However, this is counter-intuitive in…
Distributed model predictive control (DMPC) is a flexible and scalable feedback control method applicable to a wide range of systems. While the stability analysis of DMPC is quite well understood, there exist only limited implementation…
Robotic fabric manipulation is challenging due to the infinite dimensional configuration space, self-occlusion, and complex dynamics of fabrics. There has been significant prior work on learning policies for specific deformable manipulation…
Constraining motion to a flat surface is a fundamental requirement for equipment across science and engineering. Modern precision robotic motion systems, such as gantries, rely on the flatness of components, including guide rails and…