Related papers: A Sequential Hermaphrodite Coupling Mechanism for …
The joint optimization of physical parameters and controllers in robotic systems is challenging. This is due to the difficulties of predicting the effect that changes in physical parameters have on final performances. At the same time,…
Robot interaction control is often limited to low dynamics or low flexibility, depending on whether an active or passive approach is chosen. In this work, we introduce a hybrid control scheme that combines the advantages of active and…
Soft materials have many important roles in animal locomotion and object manipulation. In robotic applications soft materials can store and release energy, absorb impacts, increase compliance and increase the range of possible shape…
Environments with large terrain height variations present great challenges for legged robot locomotion. Drawing inspiration from fire ants' collective assembly behavior, we study strategies that can enable two ``connectable'' robots to…
We propose and implement a lattice scheme for coherently manipulating atomic spins. Using the vector light shift and a superlattice structure, we demonstrate experimentally the capability on parallel spin addressing in double-wells and…
Decentralized heading control is crucial for robotic network operations such as surveillance, exploration, and cooperative construction. However, few results consider decentralized heading control when the speed of heading adjustment is…
Soft robots offer adaptability and safe interaction with complex environments. Rapid prototyping kits that allow soft robots to be assembled easily will allow different geometries to be explored quickly to suit different environments or to…
Designing multi-agent robotic systems requires reasoning across tightly coupled decisions spanning heterogeneous domains, including robot design, fleet composition, and planning. Much effort has been devoted to isolated improvements in…
Finding conditions that support synchronization is a fertile and active area of research with applications across multiple disciplines. Here we present and analyze a scheme for synchronizing chaotic dynamical systems by transiently…
Modular robots can be rearranged into a new design, perhaps each day, to handle a wide variety of tasks by forming a customized robot for each new task. However, reconfiguring just the mechanism is not sufficient: each design also requires…
A key challenge towards the goal of multi-part assembly tasks is finding robust sensorimotor control methods in the presence of uncertainty. In contrast to previous works that rely on a priori knowledge on whether two parts match, we aim to…
In this paper, we propose a novel design of a hybrid mobile robot with controllable stiffness and deformable shape. Compared to conventional mobile agents, our system can switch between rigid and compliant phases by solidifying or melting…
Design, control, and estimation for dynamic systems require accurate and analytically tractable models. However, modern engineered systems contain components that are described with heterogeneous modeling paradigms, as well as subsystems…
Performing long-term experimentation or large-scale data collection for machine learning in the field of soft robotics is challenging, due to the hardware robustness and experimental flexibility required. In this work, we propose a modular…
Successful aerial manipulation largely depends on how effectively a controller can tackle the coupling dynamic forces between the aerial vehicle and the manipulator. However, this control problem has remained largely unsolved as the…
Mechanical couplings such as axial-shear and axial-bending have great potential in the design of active mechanical metamaterials with directional control of input and output loads in sensors and actuators. However, the current ad hoc design…
We discuss hybrid systems in which a mechanical oscillator is coupled to another (microscopic) quantum system, such as trapped atoms or ions, solid-state spin qubits, or superconducting devices. We summarize and compare different coupling…
Modern Lightweight robots are constructed to be collaborative, which often results in a low structural stiffness compared to conventional rigid robots. Therefore, the controller must be able to handle the dynamic oscillatory effect mainly…
Synthetic active collectives, composed of many nonliving individuals capable of cooperative changes in group shape and dynamics, hold promise for practical applications and for the elucidation of guiding principles of natural collectives.…
The pattern dynamics of the one-way coupled logistic lattice which can serve as a phenomenological model for open flow is investigated and shown to be extremely rich. For medium and large coupling strengths, we find spatially periodic,…