8 accepted papers
Localization and mapping of an environment are crucial tasks for any robot operating in unstructured environments. Time-of-flight (ToF) sensors (e.g.,~lidar) have proven useful in mobile robotics, where high-resolution sensors can be used for simultaneous localization and mapping. In soft and contin…
Tendon-driven continuum robots (TDCRs) have the potential to be used in minimally invasive surgery and industrial inspection, where the robot must navigate narrow and confined spaces. We propose a model predictive controller (MPC) to leverage the non-linear kinematics and redundancy of TDCRs for who
Frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) scanning radar has emerged as an alternative to spinning LiDAR for state estimation on mobile robots. Radar's longer wavelength is less affected by small particulates, providing operational advantages in challenging environments such as dust, smoke, and fog
This paper presents Virtual Teach and Repeat (VirT&R): an extension of the Teach and Repeat (T&R) framework that enables GPS-denied, zero-shot autonomous ground vehicle navigation in untraversed environments. VirT&R leverages aerial imagery captured for a target environment to train a Neural Radianc
In this letter, a novel spatial parallel continuum robot is proposed. It is composed of three tendon-actuated continuum robots as kinematic chains that are coupled at a common end effector platform by spherical joints. A modular design approach is used, allowing the reconfiguration of each continuum
We introduce a methodology to compute the inverse kinematics for concentric tube continuum robots from a desired shape as input. We demonstrate that it is possible to accurately learn joint parameters using neural networks for a discrete point-wise shape representation with different discretization.…
In this work, a novel planar parallel continuum robot (PCR) is introduced, consisting of three kinematic chains that are coupled at a triangular end-effector platform and include tendon-actuated continuum segments. The kinematics of the resulting structure are derived by adapting the descriptions fo
Continuum robots actuated by tendons are a widely researched robot design offering high dexterity and large workspaces relative to their volume. Their flexible and compliant structure can be easily miniaturized, making them predestined for applications in difficult-to-reach and confined spaces. Adap