11 accepted papers
Assistive robots promise to be of great help to wheelchair users with motor impairments, for example for activities of daily living. Using shared control to provide task-specific assistance – for instance with the Shared Control Templates (SCT) framework – facilitates user control, even with low-dim…
Shared control enables users with motor impairments to control high-dimensional assistive robots with low-dimensional user interfaces. The challenge is to simultaneously 1) provide support for completing daily living tasks 2) enable sufficient freedom of movement to foster user empowerment 3) ensure
We propose a novel pipeline for unknown object grasping in shared robotic autonomy scenarios. State-of-the-art methods for fully autonomous scenarios are typically learning-based approaches optimised for a specific end-effector, that generate grasp poses directly from sensor input. In the domain of…
Purposeful interaction with objects usually requires certain constraints to be respected, e.g. keeping a bottle upright to avoid spilling. In reinforcement learning, such constraints are typically encoded in the reward function. As a consequence, constraints can only be learned by violating them. Th…
From robotic space assistance to healthcare robotics, there is increasing interest in robots that offer adaptable levels of autonomy. In this paper, we propose an action representation and planning framework that is able to generate plans that can be executed with both shared control and supervised…
Controlling a robotic arm to achieve manipulation tasks is challenging for humans. Especially if only low-dimensional input signals can be provided, as is often the case for users with motor impairments. Using shared control to provide task-specific guidance and constraints facilitates control – for…
Assistive robots aim to help humans with impairments execute motor tasks in everyday household environments. Controlling the end-effector of such robots directly, for instance with a joystick, is often cumbersome. Shared control methods, like Shared Control Templates (SCTs) [1], have therefore been
Injuries, accidents, strokes, and other diseases can significantly degrade the capabilities to perform even the most simple activities in daily life. A large share of these cases involves neuromuscular diseases, which lead to severely reduced muscle function. However, even though affected people are…
Light-weight robotic manipulators can be used to restore the manipulation capability of people with a motor disability. However, manipulating the environment poses a complex task, especially when the control interface is of low bandwidth, as may be the case for users with impairments. Therefore, we…
In contrast to underactuated robotic hands the DLR AWIWI II hand of the David robot is fully controllable because each finger with 4 joints is actuated by 6 or 8 tendons respectively. For such fingers all joint angles (generalized positions) or joint torques (generalized forces) can be controlled in…
Light-weight robotic manipulators in combination with power wheelchairs can help to restore the mobility of people with disabilities. While such systems are available on the market, they typically are limited to fully manual control modes. In research, shared control methods are employed, to increas…