19 accepted papers
Origami-inspired robots offer rapid, accessible design and manufacture with diverse functionalities. In particular, origami robots without conventional electronics have the unique advantage of functioning in extreme environments such as ones with high radiation or large magnetic fields. However, the…
In limbed robotics, end-effectors must serve dual functions, such as both feet for locomotion and grippers for grasping, which presents design challenges. This paper introduces a multi-modal end-effector capable of transitioning between flat and line foot configurations while providing grasping capa
Spatial formations can give many social cues, such as illustrating a group of people are having a conversation (social affiliation), or that they are trying to move swiftly through a space (functional goal). This work explored how people perceive varied robots formations while navigating through a s…
In this paper, we present a soft modular block inspired by tensegrity structures that can form load-bearing structures through self-assembly. The block comprises a stellated compliant skeleton, shape memory alloy muscles, and permanent magnet connectors. We classify five deformation primitives for i
In this paper we present BOEM-SLAM, a backend for visual-inertial SLAM systems capable of creating a globally consistent trajectory and map without retaining the entire history of data. By leveraging the hidden Markov model structure, BOEM-SLAM can summarize historical data into sufficient statistic…
Field robotics in perceptually-challenging environments require fast and accurate state estimation, but modern LiDAR sensors quickly overwhelm current odometry algorithms. To this end, this letter presents a lightweight frontend LiDAR odometry solution with consistent and accurate localization for c
Modern autonomous systems are purposed for many challenging scenarios, where agents will face unexpected events and complicated tasks. The presence of disturbance noise with control command and unknown inputs can negatively impact robot performance. Previous research of joint input and state estimat…
Orthogonally assembled double-layered corrugated (OADLC) mechanisms are a class of foldable structures that harness origami-inspired methods to enhance the structural stiffness of resulting devices; these mechanisms have extensive applications due to their lightweight, compact nature as well as thei…
Although Trajectory Optimization (TO) is one of the most powerful motion planning tools, it suffers from expensive computational complexity as a time horizon increases in cluttered environments. It can also fail to converge to a globally optimal solution. In this paper, we present Lazy Trajectory Op…
Origami robots–often called "printable" robots– created using folding processes have gained extensive attention due to their potential for rapid and accessible design and fabrication through simple structures with complex functionalities. However, almost all origami robots require conventional rigid…
Monocular depth inference has gained tremendous attention from researchers in recent years and remains as a promising replacement for expensive time-of-flight sensors, but issues with scale acquisition and implementation overhead still plague these systems. To this end, this work presents an unsuper…
Under line-of-sight (LOS) network conditions, multi-input multi-output (MIMO) wireless communications can increase the channel capacity between a team of robots and a multi-antenna array at a stationary base station. This increased capacity can result in greater data throughput, shortening the time…
In this paper, we propose an online path planning architecture that extends the model predictive control (MPC) formulation to consider future location uncertainties for safer navigation through cluttered environments. Our algorithm combines an object detection pipeline with a recurrent neural networ…
We present a motion planning algorithm with probabilistic guarantees for limbed robots with stochastic gripping forces. Planners based on deterministic models with a worst-case uncertainty can be conservative and inflexible to consider the stochastic behavior of the contact, especially when a grippe
This paper describes CoLo - a performance evaluation system for two-dimensional cooperative localization algorithms. The system consists of a physical experiment (CoLo-PE) for data collection and a software analysis tool (CoLo-AT) using real-world datasets to evaluate the performances of users’ coop…
Mechanical logic is a class of dynamic electromechanical mechanisms which leverages carefully designed mechanical structures to generate programmed control actions from a constant electrical power supply; thus, it can be employed as a control method for fully printable autonomous robots. Composed of…
Typically, localization algorithms focus on maximizing estimation accuracy, often while neglecting some of the realworld costs of achieving such performance. In this letter, we formulate optimal scheduling problems of multirobot localization to investigate the tradeoff between estimate accuracy and
Autonomous vehicles promise safer roads, energy savings, and more efficient use of existing infrastructure, among many other benefits. Although the effect of autonomous vehicles has been studied in the limits (near-zero or full penetration), the transition range requires new formulations, mathematic…
Computational thinking is an important part of a modern education, and robotics provides a powerful tool for teaching programming logic in an interactive and engaging way. The robot garden presented in this paper is a distributed multi-robot system capable of running autonomously or under user contr…