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When humans interact with robots influence is inevitable. Consider an autonomous car driving near a human: the speed and steering of the autonomous car will affect how the human drives. Prior works have developed frameworks that enable…
As robots are being increasingly used in close proximity to humans and objects, it is imperative that robots operate safely and efficiently under real-world conditions. Yet, the environment is seldom known perfectly. Noisy sensors and…
We reflect on the design of a multispecies world centred around a bespoke enclosure in which three cats and a robot arm coexist for six hours a day during a twelve-day installation as part of an artist-led project. In this paper, we present…
Collision avoidance in unknown obstacle-cluttered environments may not always be feasible. This paper focuses on an emerging paradigm shift in which potential collisions with the environment can be harnessed instead of being avoided…
A robot deployed in a home over long stretches of time faces a true lifelong learning problem. As it seeks to provide assistance to its users, the robot should leverage any accumulated experience to improve its own knowledge and…
Traditional path-planning techniques treat humans as obstacles. This has changed since robots started to enter human environments. On modern robots, social navigation has become an important aspect of navigation systems. To use…
For long-term deployment in dynamic real-world environments, assistive robots must continue to learn and adapt to their environments. Researchers have developed various computational models for continual learning (CL) that can allow robots…
Aerial robots are a well-established solution for exploration, monitoring, and inspection, thanks to their superior maneuverability and agility. However, in many environments, they risk crashing and sustaining damage after collisions.…
During co-manipulation involving humans and robots, it is necessary to base robot controllers on human behaviors to achieve comfortable and coordinated movement between the human-robot dyad. In this paper, we describe an experiment between…
Robot accidents are inevitable. Although rare, they have been happening since assembly-line robots were first introduced in the 1960s. But a new generation of social robots are now becoming commonplace. Often with sophisticated embedded…
The capability of a mobile robot to efficiently and safely perform complex missions is limited by its knowledge of the environment, namely the situation. Advanced reasoning, decision-making, and execution skills enable an intelligent agent…
Mobile robots are traditionally developed to be reactive and avoid collisions with surrounding humans, often moving in unnatural ways without following social protocols, forcing people to behave very differently from human-human interaction…
Interacting with human agents in complex scenarios presents a significant challenge for robotic navigation, particularly in environments that necessitate both collision avoidance and collaborative interaction, such as indoor spaces. Unlike…
Robotic disassembly involves contact-rich interactions in which successful manipulation depends not only on geometric alignment but also on force-dependent state transitions. While vision-based policies perform well in structured settings,…
Exploiting robots for activities in human-shared environments, whether warehouses, shopping centres or hospitals, calls for such robots to understand the underlying physical interactions between nearby agents and objects. In particular,…
This paper discusses ongoing work in demonstrating research in mobile autonomy in challenging driving scenarios. In our approach, we address fundamental technical issues to overcome critical barriers to assurance and regulation for…
To improve the cognitive autonomy of humanoid robots, this research proposes a multi-scenario reasoning architecture to solve the technical shortcomings of multi-modal understanding in this field. It draws on simulation based experimental…
Understanding human perceptions of robot performance is crucial for designing socially intelligent robots that can adapt to human expectations. Current approaches often rely on surveys, which can disrupt ongoing human-robot interactions. As…
Unlike human beings that can employ the entire surface of their limbs as a means to establish contact with their environment, robots are typically programmed to interact with their environments via their end-effectors, in a collision-free…
Precise perception of contact interactions is essential for fine-grained manipulation skills for robots. In this paper, we present the design of feedback skills for robots that must learn to stack complex-shaped objects on top of each other…