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Serially connected robots are promising candidates for performing tasks in confined spaces such as search-and-rescue in large-scale disasters. Such robots are typically limbless, and we hypothesize that the addition of limbs could improve…
Supernumerary robotic limbs (SLs) have the potential to transform a wide range of human activities, yet their usability remains limited by key technical challenges, particularly in ensuring safety and achieving versatile control. Here, we…
The ability to flexibly leverage limbs for loco-manipulation is essential for enabling autonomous robots to operate in unstructured environments. Yet, prior work on loco-manipulation is often constrained to specific tasks or predetermined…
Prosthesis users can regain partial limb functionality, however, full natural limb mobility is rarely restored, often resulting in compensatory movements that lead to discomfort, inefficiency, and long-term physical strain. To address this…
This paper presents a novel modular robot system that can self-reconfigure to achieve omnidirectional movements for collaborative object transportation. Each robotic module is equipped with a steerable omni-wheel for navigation and is…
Modular Aerial Robotic Systems (MARS) consist of multiple drone units assembled into a single, integrated rigid flying platform. With inherent redundancy, MARS can self-reconfigure into different configurations to mitigate rotor or unit…
As legged robots take on roles in industrial and autonomous construction, collaborative loco-manipulation is crucial for handling large and heavy objects that exceed the capabilities of a single robot. However, ensuring the safety of these…
Legged machines are becoming increasingly agile and adaptive but they have so far lacked the morphological diversity of legged animals, which have been rearranged and reshaped to fill millions of niches. Unlike their biological…
Modular Self-Reconfigurable Robot (MSRR) systems are a class of robots capable of forming higher-level robotic systems by altering the topological relationships between modules, offering enhanced adaptability and robustness in various…
Motion reasoning serves as the cornerstone of multi-object tracking (MOT), as it enables consistent association of targets across frames. However, existing motion estimation approaches face two major limitations: (1) instability caused by…
As robots move from the laboratory into the real world, motion planning will need to account for model uncertainty and risk. For robot motions involving intermittent contact, planning for uncertainty in contact is especially important, as…
Robotic systems operating in unstructured environments require the ability to switch between compliant and rigid states to perform diverse tasks such as adaptive grasping, high-force manipulation, shape holding, and navigation in…
Hyper-redundant robots offer high dexterity, making them good at operating in confined and unstructured environments. To extend the reachable workspace, we built a multi-segment flexible rack actuated planar robot. However, the compliance…
Planetary exploration missions require robots capable of navigating extreme and unknown environments. While wheeled rovers have dominated past missions, their mobility is limited to traversable surfaces. Legged robots, especially…
Modular small-scale robots offer the potential for on-demand assembly and disassembly, enabling task-specific adaptation in dynamic and constrained environments. However, existing modular magnetic platforms often depend on workspace…
Floating-base multi-link robots can change their shape during flight, making them well-suited for applications in confined environments such as autonomous inspection and search and rescue. However, trajectory planning for such systems…
Long-term Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) is crucial for enabling flexible manufacturing systems and integrating companion robots into daily human environments over extended periods. This paper identifies several key challenges for such…
For humans and robots to form an effective human-robot team (HRT) there must be sufficient trust between team members throughout a mission. We analyze data from an HRT experiment focused on trust dynamics in teams of one human and two…
In this work, we propose a method for multiple mobile robot motion planning that efficiently plans for robot teams up to 128 robots (an order of magnitude larger than existing state-of-the-art methods) in congested settings with narrow…
Modular robotics enables the development of versatile and adaptive robotic systems with autonomous reconfiguration. This paper presents a modular robotic system in which each module has independent actuation, battery power, and control,…