Related papers: An Agnostic End-Effector Alignment Controller for …
Fluidically actuated soft robots have promising capabilities such as inherent compliance and user safety. The control of soft robots needs to properly handle nonlinear actuation dynamics, motion constraints, workspace limitations, and…
This paper presents a closed-loop automation framework for heterogeneous modular robots, covering the full pipeline from morphological construction to adaptive control. In this framework, a mobile manipulator handles heterogeneous…
Antagonistic artificial muscles can decouple joint torque and stiffness, but contact transients often degrade this independence. We present a unified real-time framework applicable across pneumatic, electrohydraulic, and dielectric…
Meta-Reinforcement Learning (Meta-RL) aims to acquire meta-knowledge for quick adaptation to diverse tasks. However, applying these policies in real-world environments presents a significant challenge in balancing rapid adaptability with…
Recent advances in quadrupedal robots have demonstrated impressive agility and the ability to traverse diverse terrains. However, hardware issues, such as motor overheating or joint locking, may occur during long-distance walking or…
In biomechanics and robotics, elasticity plays a crucial role in enhancing locomotion efficiency and stability. Traditional approaches in legged robots often employ series elastic actuators (SEA) with discrete rigid components, which, while…
Control of soft robotic manipulators remains a challenge for designs with advanced capabilities and novel actuation. Two significant limitations are multi-axis, three-dimensional motion of soft bodies alongside actuator dynamics and…
The recent increase in yearly spacecraft launches and the high number of planned launches have raised questions about maintaining accessibility to space for all interested parties. A key to sustaining the future of space-flight is the…
Robot systems for teleoperation commonly use a spring-like force pulling the follower robot towards the leader's position to track their movements. With this control strategy, the tracking accuracy deteriorates when the follower' stiffness…
Recent progress in humanoid robots has unlocked agile locomotion skills, including backflipping, running, and crawling. Yet it remains challenging for a humanoid robot to perform forceful manipulation tasks such as moving objects, wiping,…
Recent advances in open-vocabulary mobile manipulation have brought robots into real domestic environments. In such settings, reliable long-horizon execution under open-set object references and frequent disturbances becomes essential.…
We study in this paper the problem of adaptive trajectory tracking control for a class of nonlinear systems with parametric uncertainties. We propose to use a modular approach, where we first design a robust nonlinear state feedback which…
To traverse complex scenarios reliably a legged robot needs to move its base aided by the ground reaction forces, which can only be generated by the legs that are momentarily in contact with the ground. A proper selection of footholds is…
Soft robots are notoriously hard to control. This is partly due to the scarcity of models able to capture their complex continuum mechanics, resulting in a lack of control methodologies that take full advantage of body compliance. Currently…
This paper proposes a novel robust adaptive model predictive controller for on-orbit dislodging. We study orbit dislodging where a servicing spacecraft uses a robotic arm to free a jammed and unactuated solar panel mounted on a hybrid hinge…
We propose a mechanically simple and cheap design for a series elastic actuator with controllable stiffness. Such characteristics are necessary for animals for running, jumping, throwing, and manipulation, yet in robots, variable stiffness…
To support humanoid robots in performing manipulation tasks, it is essential to study stable standing while accommodating upper-body motions. However, the limited controllable range of humanoid robots in a standing position affects the…
Quadruped robots have strong adaptability to extreme environments but may also experience faults. Once these faults occur, robots must be repaired before returning to the task, reducing their practical feasibility. One prevalent concern…
This work introduces two lightweight model predictive control (MPC) approaches for attitude tracking with reaction wheels during spacecraft rendezvous synchronization. Both approaches are based on a novel attitude deviation formulation,…
In this paper, a reinforced soft robot prototype with a custom-designed actuator-space string encoder are created to investigate dynamic soft robotic trajectory tracking. The soft robot prototype embedded with the proposed adaptive…