13 accepted papers
Large language models (LLMs) have been shown to exhibit a wide range of capabilities, such as writing robot code from language commands -- enabling non-experts to direct robot behaviors, modify them based on feedback, or compose them to perform new tasks. However, these capabilities (driven by in-co…
In this paper, we describe the design of the Barkour benchmark for measuring robot agility in navigating complex environments. Despite the growing interest in developing agile robot locomotion skills, the field lacks systematic benchmarks to measure the performance of robotic control systems and har…
Developing agile behaviors for legged robots re-mains a challenging problem. While deep reinforcement learning is a promising approach, learning truly agile behaviors typically requires tedious reward shaping and careful curriculum design. We formulate agile locomotion as a multi-stage learning prob…
Legged robots navigating crowded scenes and complex terrains in the real world are required to execute dynamic leg movements while processing visual input for obstacle avoidance and path planning. We show that a quadruped robot can acquire both of these skills by means of hierarchical reinforcement
Learning adaptable policies is crucial for robots to operate autonomously in our complex and quickly changing world. In this work, we present a new meta-learning method that allows robots to quickly adapt to changes in dynamics. In contrast to gradient-based meta-learning algorithms that rely on sec…
We present a model-based reinforcement learning framework for robot locomotion that achieves walking based on only 4.5 minutes of data collected on a quadruped robot. To accurately model the robot’s dynamics over a long horizon, we introduce a loss function that tracks the model’s prediction over mu
Legged locomotion is a challenging task for learning algorithms, especially when the task requires a diverse set of primitive behaviors. To solve these problems, we introduce a hierarchical framework that can automatically learn to decompose complex locomotion tasks. A high-level policy issues comma…
We propose an architecture for learning complex controllable behaviors by having simple Policies Modulate Trajectory Generators (PMTG), a powerful combination that can provide both memory and prior knowledge to the controller. The result is a flexible architecture that is applicable to a class of pr
Tensegrity robots, composed of rigid rods connected by elastic cables, have a number of unique properties that make them appealing for use as planetary exploration rovers. However, control of tensegrity robots remains a difficult problem due to their unusual structures and complex dynamics. In this…
Tensegrity robots are a class of compliant robots that have many desirable traits when designing mass efficient systems that must interact with uncertain environments. Various promising control approaches have been proposed for tensegrity systems in simulation. Unfortunately, state estimation method
Incorporating the body dynamics of compliant robots into their controller architectures can drastically reduce the complexity of locomotion control. An extreme version of this embodied control principle was demonstrated in highly compliant tensegrity robots, for which stable gait generation was achi…
Truly autonomous robots require the capacity to recognise their surroundings by interpreting their sensorimotor stream. We present an online learning algorithm for training a mixture of echo state network experts that can segment a compliant robot's sensorimotor stream. Our method follows a probabil…
The Spherical Underactuated Planetary Exploration Robot ball (SUPERball) is an ongoing project within NASA Ames Research Center's Intelligent Robotics Group and the Dynamic Tensegrity Robotics Lab (DTRL). The current SUPERball is the first full prototype of this tensegrity robot platform, eventually…