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Reinforcement Learning (RL) has the potential to enable robots with fast, nonlinear, and unstable dynamics to reach the limits of their performance. However, most recent advances rely on carefully designed physics-based simulators and…
Wheeled-legged robots combine the efficiency of wheels with the obstacle negotiation of legs, yet many state-of-the-art systems rely on costly actuators and sensors, and fall-recovery is seldom integrated, especially for wheeled-legged…
This paper presents a learning-based approach for impromptu trajectory tracking for non-minimum phase systems, i.e., systems with unstable inverse dynamics. Inversion-based feedforward approaches are commonly used for improving tracking…
Forthcoming applications concerning humanoid robots may involve physical interaction between the robot and a dynamic environment. In such scenario, classical balancing and walking controllers that neglect the environment dynamics may not be…
We present the Hbot, a holonomic, singularity-free spherical robot designed for haptic simulations. The Hbot is made up of a caged sphere actuated by steered and driven non-holonomic wheels to produce continuous and unlimited spherical…
Insect-scale micro-aerial vehicles, especially lightweight, flapping-wing robots, are becoming increasingly important for safe motion sensing in spatially constrained environments such as living spaces. However, yaw control using flapping…
In this study, we implement a control method for stabilizing a ballbot that simultaneously follows a reference. A ballbot is a robot balancing on a spherical wheel where the single point of contact with the ground makes it omnidirectional…
This research endeavors to design the perching maneuver and control in ornithopter robots. By analyzing the dynamic interplay between the robot's flight dynamics, feedback loops, and the environmental constraints, we aim to advance our…
This paper presents the CAT Vehicle (Cognitive and Autonomous Test Vehicle) Testbed: a research testbed comprised of a distributed simulation-based autonomous vehicle, with straightforward transition to hardware in the loop testing and…
Flapping wing flight is a challenging dynamical problem and is also a very fascinating subject to study in the field of biomimetic robotics. A Bat, in particular, has a very articulated armwing mechanism with high degrees-of-freedom and…
Demonstrating acrobatic behavior of a humanoid robot such as flips and spinning jumps requires systematic approaches across hardware design, motion planning, and control. In this paper, we present a new humanoid robot design, an…
Inspired by the vertebrate branch of the animal kingdom, articulated soft robots are robotic systems embedding elastic elements into a classic rigid (skeleton-like) structure. Leveraging on their bodies elasticity, soft robots promise to…
The remarkable athletic intelligence displayed by humans in complex dynamic movements such as dancing and gymnastics suggests that the balance mechanism in biological beings is decoupled from specific movement patterns. This decoupling…
Modular robots can be rearranged into a new design, perhaps each day, to handle a wide variety of tasks by forming a customized robot for each new task. However, reconfiguring just the mechanism is not sufficient: each design also requires…
A particular type of assistive robots designed for physical interaction with objects could play an important role assisting with mobility and fall prevention in healthcare facilities. Autonomous mobile manipulation presents a hurdle prior…
We study learning based controllers as a replacement for model predictive controllers (MPC) for the control of autonomous vehicles. We concentrate for the experiments on the simple yet representative bicycle model. We compare training by…
Using lower-limbs exoskeletons provides potential advantages in terms of productivity and safety associated with reduced stress. However, complex issues in human-robot interaction are still open, such as the physiological effects of…
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…
Model-based control is a popular paradigm for robot navigation because it can leverage a known dynamics model to efficiently plan robust robot trajectories. However, it is challenging to use model-based methods in settings where the…
Compared to conventional wheeled transportation systems designed for flat surfaces, soft robots exhibit exceptional adaptability to various terrains, enabling stable movement in complex environments. However, due to the risk of collision…