24 accepted papers
As a robot's operational environment and tasks to perform within it grow in complexity, the explicit specification and balancing of optimization objectives to achieve a preferred behavior profile moves increasingly farther out of reach. These systems benefit strongly by being able to align their beh…
Robots operating in dynamic and shared environments benefit from anticipating contact before it occurs. We present GenTact-Prox, a fully 3D-printed artificial skin that integrates tactile and proximity sensing for contact detection and anticipation. The artificial skin platform is modular in design,…
Robot failure is detrimental and disruptive, often requiring human intervention to recover. Our vision is 'fail-active' operation, allowing robots to safely complete their tasks even when damaged. Focusing on 'actuation failures', we introduce DEFT, a diffusion-based trajectory generator conditioned…
Many indoor workspaces are quasi-static: their global geometric layout is stable, but local semantics change continually, producing repetitive geometry, dynamic clutter, and perceptual noise that defeat standard vision-based localization. We present ShelfAware, a semantic particle filter for robust
Nominal payload ratings for articulated robots are typically derived from worst-case configurations, resulting in uniform payload constraints across the entire workspace. This conservative approach severely underutilizes the robot's inherent capabilities---our analysis demonstrates that manipulators…
Developing whole-body tactile skins for robots remains a challenging task, as existing solutions often prioritize modular, one-size-fits-all designs, which, while versatile, fail to account for the robot's specific shape and the unique demands of its operational context. In this work, we introduce G
In collaborative tasks, autonomous agents fall short of humans in their capability to quickly adapt to new and unfamiliar teammates. We posit that a limiting factor for zero-shot coordination is the lack of shared task abstractions, a mechanism humans rely on to implicitly align with teammates. To a
We introduce Refeeding State Embeddings aligned using Environmental Data (ReSEED), a novel method for grounding language in environmental data. While large language models (LLMs) excel at many tasks, they continue to struggle with multi-step sequential reasoning. ReSEED addresses this by producing l
In this work, we present a novel algorithm to perform spill-free handling of open-top liquid-filled containers that operates in cluttered environments. By allowing liquid-filled containers to be tilted at higher angles and enabling motion along all axes of end-effector orientation, our work extends…
This work explores non-prehensile manipulation (NPM) and whole-body interaction as strategies for enabling robotic manipulators to conduct manipulation tasks despite experiencing locked multi-joint (LMJ) failures. LMJs are critical system faults where two or more joints become inoperable; they impos…
In this work, we introduce LazyBoE, a multi-query method for kinodynamic motion planning with forward propagation. This algorithm allows for the simultaneous exploration of a robot’s state and control spaces, thereby enabling a wider suite of dynamic tasks in real-world applications. Our contributio…
Current motion planning approaches rely on binary collision checking to evaluate the validity of a state and thereby dictate where the robot is allowed to move. This approach leaves little room for robots to engage in contact with an object, as is often necessary when operating in densely cluttered…
Real-time control is an essential aspect of safe robot operation in the real world with dynamic objects. We present a framework for the analysis of object-aware con-trollers, methods for altering a robot's motion to anticipate and avoid possible collisions. This framework is focused on three design…
In this work, we introduce <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">PokeRRT</i> , a novel motion planning algorithm that demonstrates poking as an effective non-prehensile manipulation skill to enable fast manipulation of objects and increase
In this paper, we present a framework that unites obstacle avoidance and deliberate physical interaction for robotic manipulators. As humans and robots begin to coexist in work and household environments, pure collision avoidance is insufficient, as human–robot contact is inevitable and, in some sit…
In this paper, we present an accelerometer-based kinematic calibration algorithm to accurately estimate the pose of multiple sensor units distributed along a robot body. Our approach is self-contained, can be used on any robot provided with a Denavit-Hartenberg kinematic model, and on any skin equip…
Recent work has raised concerns about the inherent limitations of text-only pretraining. In this paper, we first demonstrate that reporting bias, the tendency of people to not state the obvious, is one of the causes of this limitation, and then investigate to what extent multimodal training can miti…
Multi-robot cooperation requires agents to make decisions that are consistent with the shared goal without disregarding action-specific preferences that might arise from asymmetry in capabilities and individual objectives. To accomplish this goal, we propose a method named SLiCC: Stackelberg Learnin…
Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) aims to develop robots that provide assistance to human workers while performing physical tasks. Such assistance comes in the form of supportive behaviors that are different from the actions part of the task, and that are meant to help a human worker more effectively…
Research in human teamwork shows that a key element of fluid and fluent interactions is the interpretation of implicit verbal and non-verbal cues in context. This poses an issue to robotic platforms, however, as they have historically worked best when controlled through explicit commands that have e…
In this paper, we present a model set for designing human-robot collaboration (HRC) experiments. It targets a common scenario in HRC, which is the collaborative assembly of furniture, and it consists of a combination of standard components and custom designs. With this work, we aim at reducing the a…
Collaborative robots represent a clear added value to manufacturing, as they promise to increase productivity and improve working conditions of such environments. Although modern robotic systems have become safe and reliable enough to operate close to human workers on a day-to-day basis, the workloa…
In robotic systems with moving cameras control of gaze allows for image stabilization, tracking and attention switching. Proper integration of these capabilities lets the robot exploit the kinematic redundancy of the oculomotor system to improve tracking performance and extend the field of view, whi…
With robots leaving factory environments and entering less controlled domains, possibly sharing living space with humans, safety needs to be guaranteed. To this end, some form of awareness of their body surface and the space surrounding it is desirable. In this work, we present a unique method that…