14 accepted papers
Autonomous control of double-Ackermann-steering robots is essential in agricultural applications, where robots must execute precise and complex maneuvers within a limited space. Classical methods, such as the Timed Elastic Band (TEB) planner, can address this problem, but they rely on parameter tuni…
This paper addresses the problem of surrounding and tracking dynamic groups of moving targets with unknown velocities using a team of mobile robots. We introduce a control strategy for multi-robot systems that continuously maintains a safety distance between each robot and the convex hull of the tar
We present a leaderless distributed controller for driving a multirobot team in a planar workspace toward an affine formation, i.e., an affine transformation of a nominal configuration. Our central idea is to organize the team in interlaced modules. Specifically, we define a module as a group of fou
Robotic manipulation of deformable linear objects (DLOs) has great potential for applications in diverse fields such as agriculture or industry. However, a major challenge lies in acquiring accurate deformation models that describe the relationship between robot motion and DLO deformations. Such mod
This letter considers existing leaderless distributed controllers that achieve three types of planar multirobot formation. Concretely, these formations are equal to a reference configuration up to translation (type F1), shape-preserving transformation (type F2), and affine transformation (type F3).
We present a formation controller for a team of mobile robots, modelled with double-integrator dynamics, to manipulate deformable objects grasped around their contour. The manipulation task is defined as reaching a target configuration consisting of a desired shape, scale, position and orientation o
We propose a new approach to control the shape of deformable objects with robots. Specifically, we consider a fixed-length elastic linear object lying on a 2D workspace. Our main idea is to encode the object's deformation behavior in an offline constant Jacobian matrix. To derive this Jacobian, we u…
Shape servoing is the problem of controlling the shape of a deformable object via robotic manipulation, exploiting sensory feedback. In many shape servoing scenarios of practical interest, the object has a natural tendency to preserve local rigidity. Motivated by this observation, we propose to use
The papers in this special section focus on robotic handling of deformable objects. Object handling and manipulation is a recurrent theme in robotics, moving progressively from simple rigid objects to articulated objects and then complex deformable objects. In recent years, there has been a growing
In this paper, we propose a formation control system for deforming and transporting simultaneously a de-formable object with a team of robots, modeled with double-integrator dynamics. The goal is to reach a target configuration, defined as a combination of shape, scale, orientation and position of t…
This letter addresses the problem of controlling multiple robots to form a prescribed team shape in two-dimensional space. We consider a team organization in interlaced triads (i.e., groups of three robots). For each triad we define a measure of geometric deformation relative to its prescribed shape
We address the monocular visual shape servoing problem. This pushes the challenging visual servoing problem one step further from rigid object manipulation towards deformable object manipulation. Explicitly, it implies deforming the object towards a desired shape in 3D space by robots using monocula…
We present a novel method to control the relative positions of the members of a robotic team. The application scenario we consider is the cooperative manipulation of a deformable object in 2D space. A typical goal in this kind of scenario is to minimize the deformation of the object with respect to…
An emerging application of multirobot systems is the monitoring of a dynamic event. Here, the goal is to enclose and track a moving target by attaining a desired geometric formation around it. By considering a circular pattern configuration for the target enclosing, the multirobot system is able to…