Related papers: Model-based Optimal Control for Rigid-Soft Underac…
Exploring the design and control strategies of soft robots through simulation is highly attractive due to its cost-effectiveness. Although many existing models (e.g., finite element analysis) are effective for simulating soft robotic…
This paper presents a new formulation for model-free robust optimal regulation of continuous-time nonlinear systems. The proposed reinforcement learning based approach, referred to as incremental adaptive dynamic programming (IADP),…
The paper presents a new, robust control algorithm for position trajectory tracking in a 3D space, dedicated to underactuated airships. In order to take into account real characteristics of such vehicles, and to reflect practically…
Multisection continuum arms offer complementary characteristics to those of traditional rigid-bodied robots. Inspired by biological appendages, such as elephant trunks and octopus arms, these robots trade rigidity for compliance, accuracy…
In this paper we use an affine connection formulation to study an optimal control problem for a class of nonholonomic, under-actuated mechanical systems. In particular, we aim at minimizing the norm-squared of the control input to move the…
Soft robots, compared to regular rigid robots, as their multiple segments with soft materials bring flexibility and compliance, have the advantages of safe interaction and dexterous operation in the environment. However, due to its…
This paper primarily focuses on the practical applications of optimal control theory for perturbed sweeping processes within the realm of robotics dynamics. By describing these models as controlled sweeping processes with pointwise control…
This work provides a complete framework for the simulation, co-optimization, and sim-to-real transfer of the design and control of soft legged robots. The compliance of soft robots provides a form of "mechanical intelligence" -- the ability…
When transferring a control policy from simulation to a physical system, the policy needs to be robust to variations in the dynamics to perform well. Commonly, the optimal policy overfits to the approximate model and the corresponding…
This paper presents a novel distributed robust optimization scheme for steering distributions of multi-agent systems under stochastic and deterministic uncertainty. Robust optimization is a subfield of optimization which aims to discover an…
In this article, we investigate the model based position control of soft hydraulic actuators arranged in an antagonistic pair. A dynamical model of the system is constructed by employing the port-Hamiltonian formulation. A control algorithm…
This paper addresses an optimal control problem for a robot that has to find and collect a finite number of objects and move them to a depot in minimum time. The robot has fourth-order dynamics that change instantaneously at any pick-up or…
Safe operation of systems such as robots requires them to plan and execute trajectories subject to safety constraints. When those systems are subject to uncertainties in their dynamics, it is challenging to ensure that the constraints are…
Collisions are common in many dynamical systems with real applications. They can be formulated as hybrid dynamical systems with discontinuities automatically triggered when states transverse certain manifolds. We present an algorithm for…
Optimal control (OC) algorithms such as Differential Dynamic Programming (DDP) take advantage of the derivatives of the dynamics to efficiently control physical systems. Yet, in the presence of nonsmooth dynamical systems, such class of…
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…
Optimal control for switch-based dynamical systems is a challenging problem in the process control literature. In this study, we model these systems as hybrid dynamical systems with finite number of unknown switching points and reformulate…
Underactuated legged robots depict highly nonlinear and complex dynamical behaviors that create significant challenges in accurately modeling system dynamics using both first principles and system identification approaches. Hence, it makes…
Inverse dynamics is used extensively in robotics and biomechanics applications. In manipulator and legged robots, it can form the basis of an effective nonlinear control strategy by providing a robot with both accurate positional tracking…
Stably inverting a dynamic system model is the foundation of numerous servo designs. Existing inversion techniques have provided accurate model approximations that are often highly effective in feedforward controls. However, when the…