Related papers: Inverse Resistive Force Theory (I-RFT): Learning g…
Robots that traverse natural terrain must interpret contact forces generated under highly dynamic conditions. However, most terrain characterization approaches rely on quasi-static assumptions that neglect velocity- and…
This work reports on developing a deep inverse reinforcement learning method for legged robots terrain traversability modeling that incorporates both exteroceptive and proprioceptive sensory data. Existing works use robot-agnostic…
Muddy terrains present significant challenges for terrestrial robots, as subtle changes in composition and water content can lead to large variations in substrate strength and force responses, causing the robot to slip or get stuck. This…
Legged robots have demonstrated high efficiency and effectiveness in unstructured and dynamic environments. However, it is still challenging for legged robots to achieve rapid and efficient locomotion on deformable, yielding substrates,…
The interaction of intruding objects with deformable materials is a common phenomenon, arising in impact and penetration problems, animal and vehicle locomotion, and various geo-space applications. The dynamics of arbitrary intruders can be…
We analyze the capabilities of various recently developed techniques, namely Resistive Force Theory (RFT) and continuum plasticity implemented with the Material Point Method (MPM), in capturing dynamics of wheel--dry granular media…
Enabling bipedal walking robots to learn how to maneuver over highly uneven, dynamically changing terrains is challenging due to the complexity of robot dynamics and interacted environments. Recent advancements in learning from…
Intrusions into granular media are common in natural and engineered settings (e.g. during animal locomotion and planetary landings). While intrusion of complex shapes in dry non-cohesive granular materials is well studied, less is known…
Mobility trajectories are essential for understanding urban dynamics and enhancing urban planning, yet access to such data is frequently hindered by privacy concerns. This research introduces a transformative framework for generating…
In-situ robotic exploration is an important tool for advancing knowledge of geological processes that describe the Earth and other Planetary bodies. To inform and enhance operations for these roving laboratories, it is imperative to…
Granular media (GM) present locomotor challenges for terrestrial and extraterrestrial devices because they can flow and solidify in response to localized intrusion of wheels, limbs, and bodies. While the development of airplanes and…
Objective: Our aim is to determine if data collected with inertial measurement units (IMUs) during steady-state running could be used to estimate ground reaction forces (GRFs) and to derive biomechanical variables (e.g., contact time,…
Compared to agile legged animals, wheeled and tracked vehicles often suffer large performance loss on granular surfaces like sand and gravel. Understanding the mechanics of legged locomotion on granular media can aid the development of…
Recently, reinforcement learning has become a promising and polular solution for robot legged locomotion. Compared to model-based control, reinforcement learning based controllers can achieve better robustness against uncertainties of…
This paper addresses the challenge of terrain-adaptive dynamic locomotion in humanoid robots, a problem traditionally tackled by optimization-based methods or reinforcement learning (RL). Optimization-based methods, such as model-predictive…
Bipeds have demonstrated high agility and mobility in unstructured environments such as sand. The yielding of such granular media brings significant sinkage and slip of the bipedal feet, leading to uncertainty and instability of walking…
We introduce inverse transport networks as a learning architecture for inverse rendering problems where, given input image measurements, we seek to infer physical scene parameters such as shape, material, and illumination. During training,…
Ground robots require the crucial capability of traversing unstructured and unprepared terrains and avoiding obstacles to complete tasks in real-world robotics applications such as disaster response. When a robot operates in off-road field…
Reinforcement learning method is extremely competitive in gait generation techniques for quadrupedal robot, which is mainly due to the fact that stochastic exploration in reinforcement training is beneficial to achieve an autonomous gait.…
It is important to understand how bipedal walkers balance and walk effectively on granular materials, such as sand and loose dirt, etc. This paper first presents a computational approach to obtain the motion and energy analysis of bipedal…