Related papers: A General Safety Framework for Autonomous Manipula…
Recent advances in machine learning technologies and sensing have paved the way for the belief that safe, accessible, and convenient autonomous vehicles may be realized in the near future. Despite tremendous advances within this context,…
When autonomous robots interact with humans, such as during autonomous driving, explicit safety guarantees are crucial in order to avoid potentially life-threatening accidents. Many data-driven methods have explored learning probabilistic…
Robotic and embodied-AI systems have the potential to improve accessibility and quality of care in clinical settings, but their deployment in close physical contact with vulnerable patients introduces significant safety risks. This paper…
Action anticipation, intent prediction, and proactive behavior are all desirable characteristics for autonomous driving policies in interactive scenarios. Paramount, however, is ensuring safety on the road -- a key challenge in doing so is…
Generating safe behaviors for autonomous systems is important as they continue to be deployed in the real world, especially around people. In this work, we focus on developing a novel safe controller for systems where there are multiple…
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…
Modern industry still relies on manual manufacturing operations and safe human-robot interaction is of great interest nowadays. Speed and Separation Monitoring (SSM) allows close and efficient collaborative scenarios by maintaining a…
As humanoid robots transition from labs to real-world environments, it is essential to democratize robot control for non-expert users. Recent human-robot imitation algorithms focus on following a reference human motion with high precision,…
Soft robots have the potential to revolutionize the use of robotic systems with their capability of establishing safe, robust, and adaptable interactions with their environment, but their precise control remains challenging. In contrast,…
Although soft robots show safer interactions with their environment than traditional robots, soft mechanisms and actuators still have significant potential for damage or degradation particularly during unmodeled contact. This article…
This review paper focuses on different aspects of perceived safety for a number of autonomous physical systems. This is a major aspect of robotics research, as more and more applications allow human and autonomous systems to share their…
The deployment of robots in uncontrolled environments requires them to operate robustly under previously unseen scenarios, like irregular terrain and wind conditions. Unfortunately, while rigorous safety frameworks from robust optimal…
In this paper, we propose a novel safe, passive, and robust control law for mechanical systems. The proposed approach addresses safety from a physical human-robot interaction perspective, where a robot must not only stay inside a…
Incorporating both flexible and rigid components in robot designs offers a unique solution to the limitations of traditional rigid robotics by enabling both compliance and strength. This paper explores the challenges and solutions for…
Robotic manipulation in dynamic and unstructured environments requires safety mechanisms that exploit what is known and what is uncertain about the world. Existing safety filters often assume full observability, limiting their applicability…
With the advancements in human-robot interaction (HRI), robots are now capable of operating in close proximity and engaging in physical interactions with humans (pHRI). Likewise, contact-based pHRI is becoming increasingly common as robots…
Recent progress in robot autonomy and safety has significantly improved human-robot interactions, enabling robots to work alongside humans on various tasks. However, complex assembly tasks still present significant challenges due to…
Soft robots are inherently compliant and have a strong potential to realize human-friendly and safe robots. Despite continued research highlighting the potential of soft robots, they remain largely confined to laboratory settings. In this…
Large language models have been widely applied to knowledge-driven decision-making for automated vehicles due to their strong generalization and reasoning capabilities. However, the safety of the resulting decisions cannot be ensured due to…
High levels of robot autonomy are a common goal, but there is a significant risk that the greater the autonomy of the robot the lesser the autonomy of the human working with the robot. For vulnerable populations like older adults who…