Related papers: Push, Press, Slide: Mode-Aware Planar Contact Mani…
In-hand manipulation is a crucial ability for reorienting and repositioning objects within grasps. The main challenges in this are not only the complexity of the computational models, but also the risks of grasp instability caused by active…
We present the first controller for quasistatic robotic planar pushing with single-point contact using only force feedback. We consider a mobile robot equipped with a force-torque sensor to measure the force at the contact point with the…
Multi-robot formation control has various applications in domains such as vehicle troops, platoons, payload transportation, and surveillance. Maintaining formation in a vehicle platoon requires designing a suitable control scheme that can…
Grasping is the dominant approach for robot manipulation, but only a single object can be grasped at a time. Nonprehensile manipulation offers richer set of interactions, however state-of-the-art is limited to using the end-effector only.…
Designing trajectories for manipulation through contact is challenging as it requires reasoning of object \& robot trajectories as well as complex contact sequences simultaneously. In this paper, we present a novel framework for…
Model-based manipulation of deformable objects has traditionally dealt with objects while neglecting their dynamics, thus mostly focusing on very lightweight objects at steady state. At the same time, soft robotic research has made…
Modeling contact between deformable solids is a fundamental problem in computer animation, mechanical design, and robotics. Existing methods based on $C^0$-discretizations -- piece-wise linear or polynomial surfaces -- suffer from…
Ensuring safety is crucial to promote the application of robot manipulators in open workspaces. Factors such as sensor errors or unpredictable collisions make the environment full of uncertainties. In this work, we investigate these…
Hyper-redundant robots offer high dexterity, making them good at operating in confined and unstructured environments. To extend the reachable workspace, we built a multi-segment flexible rack actuated planar robot. However, the compliance…
Dexterous hands enable concurrent prehensile and nonprehensile manipulation, such as holding one object while interacting with another, a capability essential for everyday tasks yet underexplored in robotics. Learning such long-horizon,…
Collocated tactile sensing is a fundamental enabling technology for dexterous manipulation. However, deformable sensors introduce complex dynamics between the robot, grasped object, and environment that must be considered for fine…
Use of physics-based simulation as a planning model enables a planner to reason and generate plans that involve non-trivial interactions with the world. For example, grasping a milk container out of a cluttered refrigerator may involve…
Contact-rich manipulation involves kinematic constraints on the task motion, typically with discrete transitions between these constraints during the task. Allowing the robot to detect and reason about these contact constraints can support…
In this paper, an adaptive nonlinear strategy for the motion and force control of flexible manipulators is proposed. The approach provides robust motion control until contact is detected when force control is then available--without any…
Loco-manipulation planning skills are pivotal for expanding the utility of robots in everyday environments. These skills can be assessed based on a system's ability to coordinate complex holistic movements and multiple contact interactions…
Robot arms with lighter weight can reduce unnecessary energy consumption which is desirable in robotic industry. However, lightweight arms undergo undesirable elastic deformation. In this paper, the planar motion of a lightweight flexible…
Nonprehensile manipulation, such as pushing and pulling, enables robots to move, align, or reposition objects that may be difficult to grasp due to their geometry, size, or relationship to the robot or the environment. Much of the existing…
In this letter, we present an approach for learning in-hand manipulation skills with a low-cost, underactuated prosthetic hand in the presence of irreversible events. Our approach combines reinforcement learning based on visual perception…
Contact-rich manipulation plays an important role in human daily activities, but uncertain parameters pose significant challenges for robots to achieve comparable performance through planning and control. To address this issue, domain…
Planning motions to grasp an object in cluttered and uncertain environments is a challenging task, particularly when a collision-free trajectory does not exist and objects obstructing the way are required to be carefully grasped and moved…