28 accepted papers
In this paper, we study the problem of methodically obtaining a sufficient set of kinesthetic demonstrations, one at a time, such that a robot can be confident of its ability to perform a complex manipulation task in a given region of its workspace. Although programming by demonstration has been an …
This paper is about generating motion plans for high degree-of-freedom systems that account for both static and dynamic collisions along the entire body. A particular class of mathematical programs with complementarity constraints become useful in this regard. Optimization-based planners can tackle
Accurate localization of graspable regions within a single object point cloud is critical to enable task-based robot grasps. State-of-the-art task-based robot grasp synthesis methods fit over-approximated 3D bounding boxes that, in some cases, fail to isolate graspable regions even if they exist. Wh
Assume that a target is known to be present at an unknown point among a finite set of locations in the plane. We search for it using a mobile robot that has imperfect sensing capabilities. It takes time for the robot to move between locations and search a location; we have a total time budget within
In complex manipulation tasks, e.g., manipulation by pivoting, the motion of the object being manipulated has to satisfy path constraints that can change during the motion. Therefore, a single grasp may not be sufficient for the entire path, and the object may need to be regrasped. Additionally, geo
Given a demonstration of a complex manipulation task, such as pouring liquid from one container to another, we seek to generate a motion plan for a new task instance involving objects with different geometries. This is nontrivial since we need to simultaneously ensure that the implicit motion constr
A typical manipulation task consists of a manipulator equipped with a gripper to grasp and move an object with constraints on the motion of the hand-held object, which may be due to the nature of the task itself or from object-environment contacts. In this paper, we study the problem of computing jo…
Containerized vertical farming is a type of vertical farming practice using hydroponics in which plants are grown in vertical layers within a mobile shipping container. Space limitations within shipping containers make the automation of different farming operations challenging. In this paper, we exp…
In this paper, we present a novel method of motion planning for performing complex manipulation tasks by using human demonstration and exploiting the screw geometry of motion. We consider complex manipulation tasks where there are constraints on the motion of the end effector of the robot. Examples…
In this paper, we study the problem of task-oriented grasp synthesis from partial point cloud data using an eye-in-hand camera configuration. In task-oriented grasp synthesis, a grasp has to be selected so that the object is not lost during manipulation, and it is also ensured that adequate force/mo…
As collaborative robots move closer to human environments, motion generation and reactive planning strategies that allow for elaborate task execution with minimal easy-to-implement guidance whilst coping with changes in the environment is of paramount importance. In this paper, we present a novel ap…
We present a novel algorithm for combined task assignment and path planning on a roadmap with stochastic costs. In this problem, the initially unassigned robots and tasks are located at known positions in a roadmap. We want to assign a unique task to each robot and compute a path for the robot to go…
Evaluating a grasp generated by a set of hand-object contact locations is a key component of many grasp planning algorithms. In this paper, we present a novel second-order cone program (SOCP) based optimization formulation for evaluating a grasps’ ability to apply wrenches to generate a linear motio…
Manipulation of objects by exploiting their contact with the environment can enhance both the dexterity and payload capability of robotic manipulators. A common way to manipulate heavy objects beyond the payload capability of a robot is to use a sequence of pivoting motions, wherein, an object is mo…
We present a novel algorithm for the multi-robot generalized assignment problem (GAP) with stochastic resource consumption. In this problem, each robot has a resource (e.g., battery life) constraint and it consumes a certain amount of resource to perform a task. In practice, the resource consumed fo…
We present a novel algorithm for simultaneous task assignment and path planning on a graph (or roadmap) with stochastic edge costs. In this problem, the initially unassigned robots and tasks are located at known positions in a roadmap. We want to assign a unique task to each robot and compute a path…
In this paper, we study the problem of computing grasping forces for quasi-static manipulation of large and heavy objects, by exploiting object-environment contacts. We present a general formulation of this problem as a Second-Order Cone Program (SOCP) that considers (i) contact friction constraints…
In this work, we focus on developing algorithms to maintain and enhance the connectivity of a multi-robot system with minimal disruption to the primary tasks that the robots are performing. Such algorithms are useful for collaborating robots to be resilient to reduction in connectivity of the commun…
Robot motion is controlled in the joint space whereas the robots have to perform tasks in their task space. Many tasks like carrying a glass of liquid, pouring liquid, opening a drawer requires constraints on the end-effector during the motion. The forward and inverse kinematic mappings between join…
We propose a geometric method to solve inverse kinematics (IK) problems of 7-DoF manipulators with joint offsets at shoulder, elbow, and wrist. Traditionally, inverse position kinematics for redundant manipulators are solved by using an iterative method based on the pseudo-inverse of the manipulator…
We present a principled method for motion prediction via dynamic simulation for rigid bodies in intermittent contact with each other where the contact is assumed to be a planar non-convex contact patch. The planar non-convex contact patch can either be a topologically connected set or disconnected s…
Motivated by applications in multirobot team selection, in this paper, we present a novel algorithm for computing optimal solution of chance-constrained 0-1 knapsack problem. In this variation of the knapsack problem, the objective function is deterministic but the weights of the items are stochasti…
In this paper, we design provably-good algorithms for task allocation in multi-robot systems in the presence of payoff uncertainty. We consider a group of robots that has to perform a given set of tasks where each robot performs at most one task. The payoffs of the robots doing the tasks are assumed…
Robotic swarms are distributed systems that exhibit global behaviors arising from local interactions between individual robots. Each robot can be programmed with several local control laws that can be activated depending on an operator's choice of global swarm behavior. While some simple behaviors (…
For a multi-gantry production system, in which several gantries move among the machines and load/unload parts, the assignment of gantries directly impacts the system performance. Gantry scheduling problem is extremely important, involving when and where the gantries are assigned to the machines. Thi
In many multi-robot applications such as target search, environmental monitoring and reconnaissance, the multi-robot system operates semi-autonomously, but under the supervision of a remote human who monitors task progress. In these applications, each robot collects a large amount of task-specific d…
We propose the Stochastic Multi-Robot Persistent Coverage Problem (SMRPCP) and correspondant methodology to compute an optimal schedule that enables a fleet of energy-constrained unmanned aerial vehicles to repeatedly perform a set of tasks while maximizing the frequency of task completion and prese…
In this paper, we present an algorithm to solve the Multi-Robot Persistent Coverage Problem (MRPCP). Here, we seek to compute a schedule that will allow a fleet of agents to visit all targets of a given set while maximizing the frequency of visitation and maintaining a sufficient fuel capacity by re…