30 accepted papers
In large-scale, complex, and communication-constrained environments, efficient multi-robot cooperation places stringent demands on Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) systems. Existing Collaborative LiDAR SLAM (C-LSLAM) approaches achieve high localization accuracy but rely on high-bandwidt
During robotic disaster relief missions, state estimation still faces significant challenges, especially when GNSS is denied or sensor perception undergoes degradation. In this paper, we introduce a degradation-aware LiDAR-Thermal-Inertial SLAM, DaLiTI, that leverages the complementary nature of mul…
Autonomous ground mobile robots rely on their configuration characteristics to prevent tip-overs and collisions, ensuring safe navigation in complex environments. However, complex configurations with specially designed links and joints produce a higher dimensional workspace and bring significant cha…
Multirotor aerial vehicles (MAVs) in confined, dynamic indoor environments need reliable planning capabilities to avoid moving pedestrians. Current MAV trajectory planning algorithms often result in low success rates or unnecessary constraints on navigable space. We propose a multi-stage local traje
This paper introduces the Conflict-Based Three-agent Meeting with Pickup (CBTMP), a near-optimal algorithm tailored for cooperative multi-agent path finding in heterogeneous environments, specifically to boost the operational efficiency of intelligent warehouses. CBTMP is a two-level algorithm. The
During robotic disaster relief missions, state estimation still faces significant challenges, especially when GNSS is denied or sensor perception undergoes degradation. In this paper, we introduce a degradation-aware LiDAR-Thermal-Inertial SLAM, DaLiTI, that leverages the complementary nature of mul
Utilizing robots for autonomous target search in complex and unknown environments can greatly improve the efficiency of search and rescue missions. However, existing methods have shown inadequate performance due to hardware platform limitations, inefficient viewpoint selection strategies, and conser
Visual place recognition is a critical component of robust simultaneous localization and mapping systems. Conventional approaches primarily rely on RGB imagery, but their performance degrades significantly in extreme environments, such as those with poor illumination and airborne particulate interfe
LiDARs are widely used in autonomous robots due to their ability to provide accurate environment structural information. However, the large size of point clouds poses challenges in terms of data storage and transmission. In this paper, we propose a novel point cloud compression and transmission fram
This paper proposes <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">SLOT-MPC</i>, a hierarchical model predictive control framework for a system of multirotor Unmmaned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), which aims to minimize uncertainty in estimating both ego-mo
Target tracking is a fundamental task in the domain of robotics. The effectiveness of target tracking hinges upon various factors, such as tracking distance, occlusions, collision avoidance, etc. However, few existing works can simultaneously tackle these considerations of tracking single and multip…
The outdoor environment has many uneven surfaces that put the robot at risk of sinking or tipping over. Recognizing the type of terrain can help robot avoid risks and choose an appropriate gait. One of the critical problems is how to extract the terrain-related knowledge from sensor data collected a…
As fully-actuated systems, omnidirectional multirotor aerial vehicles (OMAVs) have more flexible maneuverability and advantages in aggressive flight in cluttered environments than traditional underactuated MAVs. This letter aims to achieve safe flight of OMAVs in cluttered environments. We present a
Maintaining stability after catching an object is essential for the flight safety of unmanned aerial manipulators (UAMs). Current research on UAM catching stationary or moving targets neglects the impact of the target and the introduced center of mass (COM) displacement. This letter proposes an appr
Large-scale dense mapping is vital in robotics, digital twins, and virtual reality. Recently, implicit neural mapping has shown remarkable reconstruction quality. However, incremental large-scale mapping with implicit neural representations remains problematic due to low efficiency, limited video me…
It is challenging to realize the safe navigation of mobile robots in crowds. Most of the previous studies may lead to unsafe robot navigation in crowds, as safety guarantee is lacked. To solve this problem, we devise a safety filter (SF) that enables realization of safe robot navigation in crowds, a…
Actively planning sensor views during object reconstruction is crucial for autonomous mobile robots. An effective method should be able to strike a balance between accuracy and efficiency. In this letter, we propose a seamless integration of the emerging implicit representation with the active recon
State estimation in complex illumination environments based on conventional visual-inertial odometry is a challenging task due to the severe visual degradation of the visual camera. The thermal infrared camera is capable of all-day time and is less affected by illumination variation. However, most e
Autonomous exploration in unknown environments is a fundamental task for robots. Existing approaches mostly were concentrated on the efficiency of the exploration with the assumption of perfect state estimation, but the drift of pose estimation in visual SLAM occurs frequently and is detrimental to…
Current simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) algorithms perform well in static environments but easily fail in dynamic environments. Recent works introduce deep learning-based semantic information to SLAM systems to reduce the influence of dynamic objects. However, it is still challenging to
Micro aerial vehicles usually have strap-down sensors on the vehicle body, leading to the severe coupling effect between perception and trajectory planning. As a result, visual-inertial simultaneous localization and mapping (VI-SLAM) technologies implemented on MAVs suffer from tracking failure prob…
The automatic state recognition and handling of fabrics, which are typical deformable objects, is difficult to realize. The development of related technologies for fabric manipulation remains impractical. This research was inspired by the process by which humans handle fabrics using their fingers. W
Autonomous delivery of suspended payloads with MAVs has many applications in rescue and logistics transportation. Robust and online estimation of the payload status is important but challenging especially in outdoor environments. The paper develops a novel real-time system for estimating the payload…
This paper focuses on designing, modeling and validating a novel scalable multicopter whose deformation mechanism, called SNIAE-SSE, relies on a combination of simple non-intersecting angulated elements (SNIAEs) and straight scissor-like elements (SSEs). The proposed SNIAE-SSE mechanism has the adva…
Flexible continuum robots have exhibited unique advantages in working in an unstructured environment. Many applications require robots to actively control the deformation of soft objects, such as soft tissues in surgery. Thus, this study presents a robust model-predictive deformation control of a so…
Most existing trajectory tracking controllers are based on non-skidding and non-slipping assumptions, also assume that full states are accessible, which is unrealistic for real-world applications due to tire-road interaction. This paper presents a novel vision-based approach to achieve high performa…
The grasping control of an aerial manipulator in practical environments is challenging due to its complex kinematics/dynamics and motion constraints. This paper introduces a lightweight aerial manipulator, which is combined with an X8 coaxial octocopter and a 4-DoF manipulator. To address the graspi…
How to achieve the required contouring tracking accuracy especially during high-speed and large-curvature contouring tasks, has always been an important problem in manufacturing applications. In this paper, a contouring error estimation method based on natural local approximation is used, and then t…
Transportation manipulation of biological cells, where cells are required to move into a fixed or moving region, has recently attracted increasing attention in bioscience and nanomedicine. Currently, the multicell transportation in practical applications is implemented manually, with low precision a…