Related papers: Terrain characterization and locomotion adaptation…
Multi-legged elongate robots hold promise for maneuvering through complex environments. Prior work has demonstrated that reliable locomotion can be achieved using open-loop body undulation and foot placement on rugose terrain. However,…
The recent adoption of the Robot Operating System (ROS) as a software standard in robotics has contributed to novel solutions for several problems on the area. One such problem is known as Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) with…
The collective motion of arrays of cilia - tiny, hairlike protrusions - drives the locomotion of numerous microorganisms, enabling multimodal motion and autonomous switching between gaits to navigate complex environments. To endow…
Soft robots are intrinsically capable of adapting to different environments by changing their shape in response to interaction forces with the environment. However, sensing and feedback are still required for higher level decisions and…
Quadrupedal robots resemble the physical ability of legged animals to walk through unstructured terrains. However, designing a controller for quadrupedal robots poses a significant challenge due to their functional complexity and requires…
When deploying a testbed infrastructure for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), one of the most challenging feature is to provide repeatable mobility. Wheeled robots, usually employed for such tasks, strive to adapt to the wide range of…
Legged robots can traverse challenging terrain, use perception to plan their safe foothold positions, and navigate the environment. Such unique mobility capabilities make these platforms a perfect candidate for scenarios such as search and…
Accurate traversability estimation is essential for safe and effective navigation of outdoor robots operating in complex environments. This paper introduces a novel experience-based method that allows robots to autonomously learn which…
Many organisms, including various species of spiders and caterpillars, change their shape to switch gaits and adapt to different environments. Recent technological advances, ranging from stretchable circuits to highly deformable soft…
Efficient motion planning algorithms are essential in robotics. Optimizing essential parameters, such as batch size and nearest neighbor selection in sampling-based methods, can enhance performance in the planning process. However, existing…
Self-recognition -- the ability to maintain an internal representation of one's own body within the environment -- underpins intelligent, autonomous behavior. As a foundational component of the minimal self, self-recognition provides the…
Legged robots have demonstrated remarkable agility on rigid, stationary ground, but their locomotion reliability remains limited in non-inertial environments, where the supporting ground moves, tilts, or accelerates. Such conditions arise…
This work is on vision-based planning strategies for legged robots that separate locomotion planning into foothold selection and pose adaptation. Current pose adaptation strategies optimize the robot's body pose relative to given footholds.…
It is challenging to perform system identification on soft robots due to their underactuated, high-dimensional dynamics. In this work, we present a data-driven modeling framework, based on geometric mechanics (also known as gauge theory)…
Legged locomotion enables robotic systems to traverse extremely challenging terrains. In many real-world scenarios, the terrain is not that difficult and these mixed terrain types introduce the need for flexible use of different walking…
Multi-robot localization is a crucial task for implementing multi-robot systems. Numerous researchers have proposed optimization-based multi-robot localization methods that use camera, IMU, and UWB sensors. Nevertheless, characteristics of…
Robust closed-loop locomotion remains challenging for soft quadruped robots due to high-dimensional dynamics, actuator hysteresis, and difficult-to-model contact interactions, while conventional proprioception provides limited information…
Amphibious legged robots inspired by salamanders are promising in applications in complex amphibious environments. However, despite the significant success of training controllers that achieve diverse locomotion behaviors in conventional…
The quality of the visual feedback can vary significantly on a legged robot that is meant to traverse unknown and unstructured terrains. The map of the environment, acquired with online state-of-the-art algorithms, often degrades after a…
Controller design for bipedal walking on dynamic rigid surfaces (DRSes), which are rigid surfaces moving in the inertial frame (e.g., ships and airplanes), remains largely uninvestigated. This paper introduces a hierarchical control…