21 accepted papers
Path planning is a challenging problem in robotics, for which numerous algorithms have been developed to address it. Sampling-based algorithms, such as the Rapidly Exploring Random Tree (RRT) and its variants, are renowned for their ability to explore the search space efficiently. However, these alg…
Size reconfigurable robots have been introduced for coverage applications to improve performance. The size reconfiguration ability allows a robot to access narrow areas in a smaller size while covering open spaces in a larger size, improving productivity. This paper proposes a novel CPP method consi
While agricultural robotics has made great strides in recent years, manipulation of plants for tasks such as staking and harvesting remains highly challenging due to the high variability in dynamics and deformable nature of plants. To address the challenges created by dynamics uncertainty, we develo
Achieving complete area coverage in robotics is an essential aspect for applications such as cleaning and patrolling. While multi-agent frameworks have been implemented to address the challenge of complete coverage, the area coverage performances are hindered by physical constraints and dynamic obst…
Path planning is crucial in numerous robotic applications. Reconfigurable robots possess the capability to alter their shape, enabling access to confined spaces, a task challenging for fixed-shape robots. However, existing path planners for reconfigurable robots are typically designed with predefine…
Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) technology is a rapidly developing field in robotics. Most existing SLAM algorithms lack robustness in dynamic environments because moving objects can influence mapping and localization accuracy, making it challenging for robots to identify moving objects…
Resource sharing is a crucial part of a multi-robot system. We propose a Boolean satisfiability problem (SAT) based approach to resource sharing. Our key contributions are an algorithm for converting any constrained assignment to a weighted-SAT based optimization. We propose a theorem that allows op…
Floor cleaning robots have been developed to cater to building maintenance needs. Complete area coverage is crucial for a floor cleaning robot, and its morphology design plays a vital role in realizing complete area coverage. However, floor cleaning robots with fixed morphologies have difficulty in…
Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) face challenges in efficiently covering complex environments. To navigate narrow and expansive areas, AMRs must have two essential attributes: compact size for confined spaces and larger size with omnidirectional locomotion for broader spaces. This study utilizes omni…
Coverage Path Planning (CPP) is an essential feature of robots deployed for applications such as lawn mowing, cleaning, painting, and exploration. However, most of the state-of-the-art CPP methods are proposed for fixed-morphology robots, and the coverage performance is limited by physical constrain…
Vacuum-adhesion-based climbing robots have been developed to cater to the demands in the cleaning and inspection work of airplanes. A robot intended to clean and inspect an airplane faces a Risk of Adhesion (RoA) based on the robot and the surface conditions, such as worn-out suction cups. These sor…
Cleaning robots are one of the market dominators in the commercialized robot space. So far, numerous robots have been introduced that can perform cleaning tasks in various settings, including floor, pavement, pool, lawn, windows, etc. However, none of the existing commercial cleaning robots targets…
In recent years, a rising trend of floor cleaning robots could be observed in the consumer electronic market. Area coverage performance is a crucial factor that determines the overall productivity of a floor cleaning robot. Nevertheless, the area coverage performance of commercially available floor…
Area coverage is demanded from the robots utilized in application domains such as floor cleaning. Even though many advanced coverage algorithms have been developed, the area coverage performance is limited due to the inaccessibility of narrow spaces caused by physical constraints. Reconfigurable rob…
Area coverage is crucial for robotics applications such as cleaning, painting, exploration, and inspections. Hinged reconfigurable robots have been introduced for these application domains to improve the area coverage performance. However, the existing coverage algorithms of hinged reconfigurable ro…
The next giant leap in the commercial robot cleaning market is cleaning the staircases and slope structures, leading to full-fledged building maintenance. So far, numerous robotic designs have been proposed to execute cleaning tasks on the staircase and slope surfaces. However, most existing robot d
The research interest in mobile robots with independent steering wheels has been increasing over recent years due to their high mobility and better payload capacity over the systems using omnidirectional wheels. However, with more controllable degrees of freedom, almost all of the platforms include
Cleaning requirements of glass façades of high-rise buildings have been significantly increased in recent years due to the growth of the construction industry. The conventional cleaning methods for high-rise buildings require human labor where efficiency, cost, and safety are major concerns. Therefo…
Research focuses on robots related to area coverage applications such as cleaning, painting, demining, lawn moving, and inspection is gaining significant momentum in recent years. The majority of such research platforms faces significant performance issues while accessing narrow and constrained spac…
This research work presents the development of a novel tetris inspired reconfigurable floor cleaning robot - hTetro, utilizing the hinged dissection theory of polyominoes. The developed robot platform is capable of transforming between any of the seven set of one-sided tetromino morphologies accordi…