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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…
Robotic manipulation involves actions where contacts occur between the robot and the objects. In this scope, the availability of physics-based engines allows motion planners to comprise dynamics between rigid bodies, which is necessary for…
With the goal of increasing the speed and efficiency in robotic manipulation, a control approach is presented that aims to utilize intentional simultaneous impacts to its advantage. This approach exploits the concept of the time-invariant…
Non-prehensile manipulation such as pushing is typically subject to uncertain, non-smooth dynamics. However, modeling the uncertainty of the dynamics typically results in intractable belief dynamics, making data-efficient planning under…
Human-robot cooperation is essential in environments such as warehouses and retail stores, where workers frequently handle deformable objects like paper, bags, and fabrics. Coordinating robotic actions with human assistance remains…
Grid-based storage systems with uniformly shaped loads (e.g., containers, pallets, totes) are commonplace in logistics, industrial, and transportation domains. A key performance metric for such systems is the maximization of space…
We explore a novel theoretical model for studying the performance of distributed storage management systems where the data-centers have limited capacities (as compared to storage space requested by the users). Prior schemes such as…
Tasks in outdoor open world environments are now ripe for automation with mobile manipulators. The dynamic, unstructured and unknown environments associated with such tasks -- a prime example would be collecting roadside trash -- makes them…
We consider the problem of reconfiguring a set of physical objects into a desired target configuration, a typical (sub)task in robotics and automation, arising in product assembly, packaging, stocking store shelves, and more. In this paper…
Thin plastic bags are ubiquitous in retail stores, healthcare, food handling, recycling, homes, and school lunchrooms. They are challenging both for perception (due to specularities and occlusions) and for manipulation (due to the dynamics…
Robot manipulation in cluttered scenes often requires contact-rich interactions with objects. It can be more economical to interact via non-prehensile actions, for example, push through other objects to get to the desired grasp pose,…
Human-robot interaction will play an essential role in various industries and daily tasks, enabling robots to effectively collaborate with humans and reduce their physical workload. Most of the existing approaches for physical human-robot…
Objects rarely sit in isolation in everyday human environments. If we want robots to operate and perform tasks in our human environments, they must understand how the objects they manipulate will interact with structural elements of the…
Grasping a novel target object in constrained environments (e.g., walls, bins, and shelves) requires intensive reasoning about grasp pose reachability to avoid collisions with the surrounding structures. Typical 6-DoF robotic grasping…
Pushing tasks performed by aerial manipulators can be used for contact-based industrial inspections. Underactuated aerial vehicles are widely employed in aerial manipulation due to their widespread availability and relatively low cost.…
Warehouse automation plays a pivotal role in enhancing operational efficiency, minimizing costs, and improving resilience to workforce variability. While prior research has demonstrated the potential of machine learning (ML) models to…
Daily tasks require us to use our whole body to manipulate objects, for instance when our hands are unavailable. We consider the issue of providing humanoid robots with the ability to autonomously perform similar whole-body manipulation…
Animating human-scene interactions such as pick-and-place tasks in cluttered, complex layouts is a challenging task, with objects of a wide variation of geometries and articulation under scenarios with various obstacles. The main difficulty…
Glovebox decommissioning tasks usually require manipulating relatively heavy objects in a highly constrained environment. Thus, contact with the surroundings becomes inevitable. In order to allow the robot to interact with the environment…
Physics-based manipulation in clutter involves complex interaction between multiple objects. In this paper, we consider the problem of learning, from interaction in a physics simulator, manipulation skills to solve this multi-step…