Related papers: A Co-Design Framework for High-Performance Jumping…
Legged systems have many advantages when compared to their wheeled counterparts. For example, they can more easily navigate extreme, uneven terrain. However, there are disadvantages as well, particularly the difficulty seen in modeling the…
Quadrupeds are strong candidates for navigating challenging environments because of their agile and dynamic designs. This paper presents a methodology that extends the range of exploration for quadrupedal robots by creating an end-to-end…
Automatically generating agile whole-body motions for legged and humanoid robots remains a fundamental challenge in robotics. While numerous trajectory optimization approaches have been proposed, there is no clear guideline on how the…
We introduce a novel co-design method for autonomous moving agents' shape attributes and locomotion by combining deep reinforcement learning and evolution with user control. Our main inspiration comes from evolution, which has led to wide…
This paper presents a hierarchical, performance-based framework for the design optimization of multi-fingered soft grippers. To address the need for systematically defined performance indices, the framework structures the optimization…
This paper presents a layered control approach for real-time trajectory planning and control of robust cooperative locomotion by two holonomically constrained quadrupedal robots. A novel interconnected network of reduced-order models, based…
The problem of dynamic locomotion over rough terrain requires both accurate foot placement together with an emphasis on dynamic stability. Existing approaches to this problem prioritize immediate safe foot placement over longer term dynamic…
Dynamic jumping with legged robots poses a challenging problem in planning and control. Formulating the jump optimization to allow fast online execution is difficult; efficiently using this capability to generate long-horizon motion plans…
This paper investigates the differentiable dynamic modeling of mobile manipulators to facilitate efficient motion planning and physical design of actuators, where the actuator design is parameterized by physically meaningful motor geometry…
Robotic performance emerges from the coupling of body and controller, yet it remains unclear when morphology-control co-design is necessary. We present a unified framework that embeds morphology and control parameters within a single neural…
Humans show specialized strategies for efficient collaboration. Transferring similar strategies to humanoid robots can improve their capability to interact with other agents, leading the way to complex collaborative scenarios with multiple…
Underwater robots are widely deployed for ocean exploration and manipulation. Underactuated mechanisms are particularly advantageous in aquatic environments, as reducing actuator count lowers the risk of motor leakage while introducing…
This work provides a complete framework for the simulation, co-optimization, and sim-to-real transfer of the design and control of soft legged robots. The compliance of soft robots provides a form of "mechanical intelligence" -- the ability…
Modular manipulators composed of pre-manufactured and interchangeable modules offer high adaptability across diverse tasks. However, their deployment requires generating feasible motions while jointly optimizing morphology and mounted pose…
Computing stabilizing and optimal control actions for legged locomotion in real time is difficult due to the nonlinear, hybrid, and high dimensional nature of these robots. The hybrid nature of the system introduces a combination of…
The design (shape) of a robot is usually decided before the control is implemented. This might limit how well the design is adapted to a task, as the suitability of the design is given by how well the robot performs in the task, which…
When the human-robot interactions become ubiquitous, the environment surrounding these interactions will have significant impact on the safety and comfort of the human and the effectiveness and efficiency of the robot. Although most robots…
In the fields of robotics and biomechanics, the integration of elastic elements such as springs and tendons in legged systems has long been recognized for enabling energy-efficient locomotion. Yet, a significant challenge persists:…
Enhancing the explosive power output of the knee joints is critical for improving the agility and obstacle-crossing capabilities of humanoid robots. However, a mismatch between the knee-to-center-of-mass (CoM) transmission ratio and jumping…
We combine MAP-Elites and highly parallelisable simulation to explore the design space of a class of large legged robots, which stand at around 2m tall and whose design and construction is not well-studied. The simulation is modified to…