18 accepted papers
This work introduces an analytical approach for detecting and estimating external forces acting on deformable linear objects (DLOs) using only their observed shapes. In many robot-wire interaction tasks, contact occurs not at the end-effector but at other points along the robot’s body. Such scenario…
This paper presents a fast and accurate model of a deformable linear object (DLO) – e.g., a rope, wire, or cable – integrated into an established robot physics simulator, MuJoCo. Most accurate DLO models with low computational times exist in standalone numerical simulators, which are unable or requi
This paper addresses the problem of choosing a sparse subset of measurements for quick calibration parameter estimation. A standard solution to this is selecting a measurement only if its utility—the difference between posterior (with the measurement) and prior information (without the measurement)—…
The TrackDLO algorithm estimates the shape of a Deformable Linear Object (DLO) under occlusion from a sequence of RGB-D images. TrackDLO is vision-only and runs in real-time. It requires no external state information from physics modeling, simulation, visual markers, or contact as input. The algorit
Contact-aware gait trajectory optimization is a challenging non-convex programming problem, especially for complex terrain shapes, where prominent numerical algorithms can fail to find a solution or fall into local minima. To alleviate this issue, we propose an environment warping technique that cha
We present a method of extrinsic calibration for a system of multiple inertial measurement units (IMUs) that estimates the relative pose of each IMU on a rigid body using only measurements from the IMUs themselves, without the need to prescribe the trajectory. Our method is based on solving a nonlin
This letter proposes a category-level 6D object pose and shape estimation approach iCaps, which allows tracking 6D poses of unseen objects in a category and estimating their 3D shapes. We develop a category-level auto-encoder network using depth images as input, where feature embeddings from the aut
We present a novel motion planning strategy for the manipulation of elastic rods with two robotic arms. In previous work, it has been shown that the free configuration space of an elastic rod, i.e., the set of equilibrium shapes of the rod, is a smooth manifold of a finite dimension that can be para
To teach robots skills, it is crucial to obtain data with supervision. Since annotating real world data is time-consuming and expensive, enabling robots to learn in a self- supervised way is important. In this work, we introduce a robot system for self-supervised 6D object pose estimation. Starting…
Tracking 6D poses of objects from videos provides rich information to a robot in performing different tasks such as manipulation and navigation. In this work, we formulate the 6D object pose tracking problem in the Rao-Blackwellizedparticle filtering framework, where the 3D rotation and the 3D trans…
This paper focuses on tracking failure avoidance during vision-based navigation to a desired goal in unknown environments. While using feature-based Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (VSLAM), continuous identification and association of map points are required during motion. Thus, we disc…
In this paper, we present an incremental structure from motion (SfM) algorithm that significantly outperforms existing algorithms when fiducial markers are present in the scene, and that matches the performance of existing algorithms when no markers are present. Our algorithm uses markers to limit pot…
This letter provides a comparative analysis of common strategies for sampling-based motion planning of fully actuated closed kinematic chains with revolute joints. Three strategies are reviewed: singularity sampling, swapping between the possible passive chains while using the active-passive chains
Repeated mechanical failure due to accidental impact is one of the main reasons why people with upper-limb amputations abandon commercially-available prosthetic hands. To address this problem, we present the design and evaluation of a compliant four-bar linkage mechanism that makes the fingers of a…
Current fiducial marker detection algorithms rely on marker IDs for false positive rejection. Time is wasted on potential detections that will eventually be rejected as false positives. We introduce ChromaTag, a fiducial marker and detection algorithm designed to use opponent colors to limit and qui…
We consider the manipulation planning problem of an extensible elastic rod in collision-free or contact space. We assume the rod can be handled by grippers either at both or at only one of its extremities and during the manipulation, the grasped end may change. We show that the use of both quasi-sta…
This paper presents the Tact hand—an anthropomorphic, open-source, myoelectric prosthetic hand that was designed for use by people with transradial amputations in developing countries. This hand matches or exceeds the performance of other state-of-the-art myoelectric prosthetic hands, but costs two…
In this paper, we show that the free configuration space of a Kirchhoff elastic rod is path-connected. By free configuration space, we mean the set of all equilibrium configurations of the rod that are stable (i.e. locally minimize elastic potential energy) and do not experience self-intersections.…