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Efficient planning of assembly motions is a long standing challenge in the field of robotics that has been primarily tackled with reinforcement learning and sampling-based methods by using extensive physics simulations. This paper proposes…
Assur graphs are a tool originally developed by mechanical engineers to decompose mechanisms for simpler analysis and synthesis. Recent work has connected these graphs to strongly directed graphs, and decompositions of the pinned rigidity…
Origami morphing, obtained with patches of piecewise smooth isometries separated by straight fold lines, is an exquisite art that has already received considerable attention in the mathematics and mechanics literature. Curved fold lines,…
This paper tackles the challenging robotic task of generalizable paper cutting using scissors. In this task, scissors attached to a robot arm are driven to accurately cut curves drawn on the paper, which is hung with the top edge fixed. Due…
Industrial robots typically require very structured and predictable working environments, and explicit programming, in order to perform well. Therefore, expensive and time-consuming engineering work is a major obstruction when mediating…
Design requirements for moving parts in mechanical assemblies are typically specified in terms of interactions with other parts. Some are purely kinematic (e.g., pairwise collision avoidance) while others depend on physics and material…
In automated manufacturing, robots must reliably assemble parts of various geometries and low tolerances. Ideally, they plan the required motions autonomously. This poses a substantial challenge due to high-dimensional state spaces and…
This paper presents a method of computing free motions of a planar assembly of rigid bodies connected by loose joints. Joints are modeled using local distance constraints, which are then linearized with respect to configuration space…
A linkage mechanism consists of rigid bodies assembled by joints which can be used to translate and transfer motion from one form in one place to another. In this paper, we are particularly interested in a family of spacial linkage…
We describe our work on inferring the degrees of freedom between mated parts in mechanical assemblies using deep learning on CAD representations. We train our model using a large dataset of real-world mechanical assemblies consisting of CAD…
We study the power of uncontrolled random molecular movement in the nubot model of self-assembly. The nubot model is an asynchronous nondeterministic cellular automaton augmented with rigid-body movement rules (push/pull, deterministically…
In this paper, we present a novel method of motion planning for performing complex manipulation tasks by using human demonstration and exploiting the screw geometry of motion. We consider complex manipulation tasks where there are…
Autonomous assembly is a crucial capability for robots in many applications. For this task, several problems such as obstacle avoidance, motion planning, and actuator control have been extensively studied in robotics. However, when it comes…
Fine robotic assembly, in which the parts to be assembled are small and fragile and lie in an unstructured environment, is still out of reach of today's industrial robots. The main difficulties arise in the precise localization of the parts…
When humans perform contact-rich manipulation tasks, customized tools are often necessary to simplify the task. For instance, we use various utensils for handling food, such as knives, forks and spoons. Similarly, robots may benefit from…
In this work, we study theoretical models of \emph{programmable matter} systems. The systems under consideration consist of spherical modules, kept together by magnetic forces and able to perform two minimal mechanical operations (or…
How can we manipulate the topological connectivity of a three-dimensional prismatic assembly to control the number of internal degrees of freedom and the number of connected components in it? To answer this question in a deterministic…
A topology optimization approach for designing large deformation contact-aided shape morphing compliant mechanisms is presented. Such mechanisms can be used in varying operating conditions. Design domains are described by regular hexagonal…
Structural quantities such as order parameters and correlation functions are often employed to gain insight into the physical behavior and properties of condensed matter systems. While standard quantities for characterizing structure exist,…
Compliant mechanisms achieve motion through elastic deformation. In this work, we address the synthesis of a compliant cross-hinge mechanism capable of large angular strokes while approximating the behavior of an ideal revolute joint. To…