9 accepted papers
Although autonomous robots have great potential to boost efficiency and throughput across the whole retail chain, they are mostly being deployed in large warehouses and distribution centers. Deploying robots in stores with customers, such as supermarkets, requires substantially more development effo…
This letter explores the problem of delivering unwieldy objects using nonholonomic mobile bases. We propose a new approach called <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">free pushing</i> to address this challenge. Unlike previous <italic xmln
This letter addresses the problem of pushing manipulation with nonholonomic mobile robots. Pushing is a fundamental skill that enables robots to move unwieldy objects that cannot be grasped. We propose a stable pushing method that maintains stiff contact between the robot and the object to avoid con
The free energy principle from neuroscience provides a brain-inspired perception scheme through a data-driven model learning algorithm called Dynamic Expectation Maximization (DEM). This paper aims at introducing an exper-imental design to provide the first experimental confirmation of the usefulnes…
The main task of robotic grippers, holding an object, does not require work theoretically. Yet grippers consume significant amounts of energy in practice. This paper presents an approach for designing an energy-saving drive for robotic grippers employing a Statically Balanced Force Amplifier (SBFA)…
In electrically actuated robots most energy losses are due to the heating of the actuators. This energy loss can be greatly reduced with parallel elastic actuators, by optimizing the elastic element such that it delivers most of the required torques. Previously used optimization methods relied on pa
Sampling-based kinodynamic planners, such as rapidly-exploring random trees (RRTs), pose two fundamental challenges: computing a reliable (pseudo-)metric for the distance between two random nodes, and computing a steering input to connect the nodes. The core of these challenges is a two point bounda
Parallel elastic actuators (PEAs) have shown the ability to reduce the energy consumption of robots. The problem with regular PEAs is that it is not possible to freely choose at which instant or configuration to store or release energy. This paper introduces the concept and the design of the Bi-dire…
High feedback gains cannot be used on all robots due to sensor noise, time delays or interaction with humans. The problem with low feedback gain controlled robots is that the accuracy of the task execution is potentially low. In this paper we investigate if trajectory optimization of feedback-feedfo…