16 accepted papers
In this letter, we propose a decentralized optimal density control strategy for multi-robot systems modeled as interacting Brownian particles. The robots' density dynamics are described by the Fokker-Planck equation, and an optimal control problem is formulated and solved accordingly. The stability
Reinforcement Learning (RL) has been shown to be effective in many scenarios. However, it typically requires the exploration of a sufficiently large number of state-action pairs, some of which may be unsafe. Consequently, its application to safety-critical systems remains a challenge. An increasingl
In this paper, we present a unified framework to ensure the stability, safety, and passivity of a multi-robot teleoperation system in a holistic fashion. The proposed approach consists of encoding these three properties as constraints in an optimization-based controller using control Lypaunov and (i…
This paper considers a multi-robot team tasked with monitoring an environmental field of interest over long time horizons. The approach is based on a control-theoretic measure of the information collected by the robots, namely a norm of the constructability Gramian. This measure is leveraged in orde…
Multi-robot task allocation is a ubiquitous problem in robotics due to its applicability in a variety of scenarios. Adaptive task-allocation algorithms account for unknown disturbances and unpredicted phenomena in the environment where robots are deployed to execute tasks. However, this adaptivity t…
The cost, in terms of both time and money, of instantiating a physical testbed can be prohibitive. To help resolve this issue, the Robotarium offers a free, remotely accessible robotics lab to users around the world. Since allowing the general public to use it, hundreds of users have submitted thous
Executing multiple tasks concurrently is important in many robotic applications. Moreover, the prioritization of tasks is essential in applications where safety-critical tasks need to precede application-related objectives, in order to protect both the robot from its surroundings and vice versa. Fur…
For multi-robot teams with heterogeneous capabilities, typical task allocation methods assign tasks to robots based on the suitability of the robots to perform certain tasks as well as the requirements of the task itself. However, in real-world deployments of robot teams, the suitability of a robot…
In this paper, we consider a two-player racing game, where an autonomous ego vehicle has to be controlled to race against an opponent vehicle, which is either autonomous or human-driven. The approach to control the ego vehicle is based on a Sensitivity-ENhanced NAsh equilibrium seeking (SENNA) metho…
In this paper we present a study of a specific class of vibration-driven robots: the brushbots. In a bottom-up fashion, we start by deriving dynamic models of the brushes and we discuss the conditions under which these models can be employed to describe the motion of brushbots. Then, we present two…
In robot swarms operating under highly restrictive sensing and communication constraints, individuals may need to use direct physical proximity to facilitate information exchange. However, in certain task-related scenarios, this requirement might conflict with the need for robots to spread out in th…
In this paper we consider a constrained coverage control problem for a team of mobile robots. The robots are asked to provide sensor coverage over a two-dimensional domain, while being constrained to only move on a curve. The unconstrained coverage problem can be effectively solved by defining a loc…
This letter presents the SlothBot, a wire-traversing robot envisioned for long-term environmental monitoring applications. The SlothBot is a solar-powered, slow-paced, energy-efficient robot-hence its name-capable of moving on a mesh of wires by switching between branching wires. Unlike ground mobil
In this paper we consider the coverage control problem for a team of wire-traversing robots. The two-dimensional motion of robots moving in a planar environment has to be projected to one-dimensional manifolds representing the wires. Starting from Lloyd's descent algorithm for coverage control, a so…
In this letter, we consider the problem of rendering robotic tasks persistent by ensuring that the robots' energy levels are never depleted, which means that the tasks can be executed over long time horizons. This process is referred to as the persistification of the task. In particular, the state o
In this paper we present an interactive system to enhance bilateral teleoperation through online virtual fixtures generation and task switching. This is achieved using a stereo camera system which provides accurate information of the surrounding environment of the robot and of the tasks that have to…