Related papers: MEVITA: Open-Source Bipedal Robot Assembled from E…
Models of bipedal locomotion are hybrid, with a continuous component often generated by a Lagrangian plus actuators, and a discrete component where leg transfer takes place. The discrete component typically consists of a locally embedded…
Over the past three decades, countless embodied yet virtual agents have freely evolved inside computer simulations, but vanishingly few were realized as physical robots. This is because evolution was conducted at a level of abstraction that…
The development of robust learning-based control algorithms for unstable systems requires high-quality, real-world data, yet access to specialized robotic hardware remains a significant barrier for many researchers. This paper introduces a…
In automated manufacturing, robots must reliably assemble parts of various geometries and low tolerances. Ideally, they plan the required motions autonomously. This poses a substantial challenge due to high-dimensional state spaces and…
We introduce OpenBot-Fleet, a comprehensive open-source cloud robotics system for navigation. OpenBot-Fleet uses smartphones for sensing, local compute and communication, Google Firebase for secure cloud storage and off-board compute, and a…
Soft robots, inspired by elephant trunks or octopus arms, offer extraordinary flexibility to bend, twist, and elongate in ways that rigid robots cannot. However, their motion planning remains a challenge, especially in cluttered…
Wheeled bipedal robots are emerging as flexible platforms for field exploration. However, head instability induced by uneven terrain can degrade the accuracy of onboard sensors or damage fragile payloads. Existing research primarily focuses…
Wheeled robots are highly efficient in human living environments. However, conventional wheeled designs, limited by degrees of freedom, struggle to meet varying footprint needs and achieve omnidirectional mobility. This paper proposes a…
Miniaturizing legged robot platforms is challenging due to hardware limitations that constrain the number, power density, and precision of actuators at that size. By leveraging design principles of quasi-passive walking robots at any scale,…
Building trajectories for biped robot walking is a complex task considering all degrees of freedom (DOFs) commonly bound within the mechanical structure. A typical problem for such robots is the instability produced by violent transitions…
Classical rigid-bodied robotic systems are presented with proven success in theoretical development and industrial applications, are recently challenged by the emergence of soft robotics due to a growing need in physical human-robot…
Robotic manipulation in unstructured, humancentric environments poses a dual challenge: achieving the precision need for delicate free-space operation while ensuring safety during unexpected contact events. Traditional wrists struggle to…
Advanced imitation learning with structures like the transformer is increasingly demonstrating its advantages in robotics. However, deploying these large-scale models on embedded platforms remains a major challenge. In this paper, we…
Experiments on physical continuum robot are the gold standard for evaluations. Currently, as no commercial continuum robot platform is available, a large variety of early-stage prototypes exists. These prototypes are developed by individual…
Robot hands that imitate the shape of the human body have been actively studied, and various materials and mechanisms have been proposed to imitate the human body. Although the use of soft materials is advantageous in that it can imitate…
The field of autonomous robotics is growing at a rapid rate. The trend to use increasingly more sensors in vehicles is driven both by legislation and consumer demands for higher safety and reliable service. Nowadays, robots are found…
People with Visual Impairments (PVI) typically recognize objects through haptic perception. Knowing objects and materials before touching is desired by the target users but under-explored in the field of human-centered robotics. To fill…
Advanced machine learning algorithms require platforms that are extremely robust and equipped with rich sensory feedback to handle extensive trial-and-error learning without relying on strong inductive biases. Traditional robotic designs,…
The planning of whole-body motion and step time for bipedal locomotion is constructed as a model predictive control (MPC) problem, in which a sequence of optimization problems needs to be solved online. While directly solving these problems…
In this paper, we explore how techniques from soft robotics can help create a new form of robot expression. We present Sprout, a soft expressive robot that conveys its internal states by changing its body shape. Sprout can extend, bend,…