Related papers: Foam: A Tool for Spherical Approximation of Robot …
In this paper, we introduce a new approach for soft robot shape formation and morphing using approximate distance fields. The method uses concepts from constructive solid geometry, R-functions, to construct an approximate distance function…
An accurate, physically-based, and differentiable model of soft robots can unlock downstream applications in optimal control. The Finite Element Method (FEM) is an expressive approach for modeling highly deformable structures such as…
With the increasing complexity of robot systems, it is necessary to simulate them before deployment. To do this, a model of the robot's kinematics or dynamics is required. One of the most commonly used formats for modeling robots is the…
Soft robots, particularly magnetic soft robots, require specialized simulation tools to accurately model their deformation under external magnetic fields. However, existing platforms often lack dedicated support for magnetic materials,…
In this work, we propose a novel approach to represent robot geometry as distance fields (RDF) that extends the principle of signed distance fields (SDFs) to articulated kinematic chains. Our method employs a combination of Bernstein…
This paper presents a novel control algorithm for robotic manipulators in unstructured environments using proximity sensors partially distributed on the platform. The proposed approach exploits arrays of multi zone Time-of-Flight (ToF)…
Modeling the mechanics of fluid in complex scenes is vital to applications in design, graphics, and robotics. Learning-based methods provide fast and differentiable fluid simulators, however most prior work is unable to accurately model how…
LiDAR odometry and mapping (LOAM) has been playing an important role in autonomous vehicles, due to its ability to simultaneously localize the robot's pose and build high-precision, high-resolution maps of the surrounding environment. This…
Modern robotic manipulation primarily relies on visual observations in a 2D color space for skill learning but suffers from poor generalization. In contrast, humans, living in a 3D world, depend more on physical properties-such as distance,…
Accurate deformable object manipulation (DOM) is essential for achieving autonomy in robotic surgery, where soft tissues are being displaced, stretched, and dissected. Many DOM methods can be powered by simulation, which ensures realistic…
Neural-based motion planning methods have achieved remarkable progress for robotic manipulators, yet a fundamental challenge lies in simultaneously accounting for both the robot's physical shape and the surrounding environment when…
What if a robot could rethink its own morphological representation to better meet the demands of diverse tasks? Most robotic systems today treat their physical form as a fixed constraint rather than an adaptive resource, forcing the same…
In this paper, we introduce a novel approach to implicitly encode precise robot morphology using forward kinematics based on a configuration space signed distance function. Our proposed Robot Neural Distance Function (RNDF) optimizes the…
Optimization-based trajectory generation methods are widely used in whole-body planning for robots. However, existing work either oversimplifies the robot's geometry and environment representation, resulting in a conservative trajectory, or…
Robots are typically described in software by specification files (e.g., URDF, SDF, MJCF, USD) that encode only basic kinematic, dynamic, and geometric information. As a result, downstream applications such as simulation, planning, and…
As the complexity of robot systems increases, it becomes more effective to simulate them before deployment. To do this, a model of the robot's kinematics or dynamics is required, and the most commonly used format is the Unified Robot…
Soft robots can safely interact with environments because of their mechanical compliance. Self-collision is also employed in the modern design of soft robots to enhance their performance during different tasks. However, developing an…
This paper presents a novel method for modeling the shape of a continuum robot as a Neural Configuration Euclidean Distance Function (N-CEDF). By learning separate distance fields for each link and combining them through the kinematics…
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…
Task-driven design of soft robots requires models that are physically accurate and computationally efficient, while remaining transferable across actuator designs and task scenarios. However, existing modeling approaches typically face a…