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Deploying self-navigating surface vessels in inland waterways offers a sustainable alternative to reduce road traffic congestion and emissions. However, navigating confined waterways presents unique challenges, including narrow channels,…
Robots can influence people to accomplish their tasks more efficiently: autonomous cars can inch forward at an intersection to pass through, and tabletop manipulators can go for an object on the table first. However, a robot's ability to…
Animals locomote robustly and agile, albeit significant sensorimotor delays of their nervous system. The sensorimotor control of legged robots is implemented with much higher frequencies-often in the kilohertz range-and sensor and actuator…
Collision-free planning is essential for bipedal robots operating within unstructured environments. This paper presents a real-time Model Predictive Control (MPC) framework that addresses both body and foot avoidance for dynamic bipedal…
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…
This paper proposes a novel two-layer Volt/VAR control (VVC) framework to regulate the voltage profiles across an unbalanced active distribution system, which achieves both the efficient open-loop optimization and accurate closed-loop…
In this paper, we introduce a model-free, real-time, dynamic optimization and control method for a class of rigid body dynamics. Our method is based on a recent extremum seeking control for vibrational stabilization (ESC-VS) approach that…
Bolting operations are critical in industrial assembly and in the maintenance of scientific facilities, requiring high precision and robustness to faults. Although robotic solutions have the potential to improve operational safety and…
Robot navigation around humans can be a challenging problem since human movements are hard to predict. Stochastic model predictive control (MPC) can account for such uncertainties and approximately bound the probability of a collision to…
This work explores an innovative algorithm designed to enhance the mobility of underactuated bipedal robots across challenging terrains, especially when navigating through spaces with constrained opportunities for foot support, like steps…
Complex robotic systems require whole-body controllers to deal with contact interactions, handle closed kinematic chains, and track task-space control objectives. However, for many applications, safety-critical controllers are important to…
Soft robots are made of compliant materials and perform tasks that are challenging for rigid robots. However, their continuum nature makes it difficult to develop model-based control strategies. This work presents a robust model-based…
In-wheel drive (IWD) systems enhance the responsiveness, traction, and maintenance efficiency of vehicles by enabling each wheel to operate independently. This paper proposes a novel robust torque-observed valve-based control (RTOVC)…
We investigate the problem of safe control synthesis for systems operating in environments with uncontrollable agents whose dynamics are unknown but coupled with those of the controlled system. This scenario naturally arises in various…
Quadruped mammals coordinate spinal bending and axial compression to enhance locomotion agility and efficiency. However, existing robotic spines typically lack the active compliance required to support such dynamic behaviours. We present…
We present a decentralized, agent agnostic, and safety-aware control framework for human-robot collaboration based on Virtual Model Control (VMC). In our approach, both humans and robots are embedded in the same virtual-component-shaped…
Recently, safe reinforcement learning (RL) with the actor-critic structure for continuous control tasks has received increasing attention. It is still challenging to learn a near-optimal control policy with safety and convergence…
Underactuation is ubiquitous in human locomotion and should be ubiquitous in bipedal robotic locomotion as well. This chapter presents a coherent theory for the design of feedback controllers that achieve stable walking gaits in…
We study the problem of mobile manipulation using legged robots equipped with an arm, namely legged loco-manipulation. The robot legs, while usually utilized for mobility, offer an opportunity to amplify the manipulation capabilities by…
This paper investigates adaptive control of nonlinear robot manipulators with parametric uncertainty. Motivated by generating closed-loop robot dynamics with enhanced transmission capability of a reference torque and with connection to…