17 accepted papers
Accurate 3D shape estimation of deformable linear objects (DLOs) from sensory data is a critical prerequisite for downstream manipulation tasks like shape control. However, real-world scenarios often contain unstructured environments and yield noisy, partial observations, posing significant challeng
Manipulating elasto-plastic object remains a significant challenge due to severe self-occlusion, difficulties of representation, and complicated dynamics. This work proposes a novel framework for elasto-plastic object manipulation with a quasi-static assumption for motions, leveraging 3D occupancy t…
Manipulating elasto-plastic objects remains a significant challenge due to severe self-occlusion, difficulties of representation, and complicated dynamics. This work proposes a novel framework for elasto-plastic object manipulation with a quasi-static assumption for motions, leveraging 3D occupancy
This letter presents OMEGA, a new open-source, multi-mode hopping platform. It consists of a rig and a middle-size robot equipped with an omnidirectional parallel 3-RSR leg, allowing for 1D, 2D, and 3D hopping modes. All modes can be easily interchanged via detachable mechanisms. A control framework
Precise needle alignment is essential for percutaneous needle insertion in robotic ultrasound-guided procedures. However, inherent challenges such as speckle noise, needle-like artifacts, and low image resolution complicate robust needle detection, which is essential for alignment in ultrasound imag
Animal motion has been a source of inspiration for enhancing robot maneuverability. Kangaroo rats rely on aerial reorientation during evasive leaps to evade snake predation. They rapidly swing their tails to reorient their bodies over two full rotations around the yaw direction. Robotic tails for ae
This paper proposes an interactive navigation framework by using large language and vision-language models, allowing robots to navigate in environments with traversable obstacles. We utilize the large language model (GPT-3.5) and the open-set Vision-language Model (Grounding DINO) to create an actio…
Deformable linear object (DLO) manipulation in constrained environments with obstacles has received limited investigations due to DLO's complex intrinsic deformation. In this study, we focus on addressing constrained DLO manipulation problems, especially in the context of avoiding cluttered environm
Inertial appendages (e.g., tails and reaction wheels) have shown their reorientation capability to enhance robots' mobility while airborne or improve robots' safety in falling. The tail, especially with two Degrees of Freedom (DoFs), is normally subject to its limited Range of Motion (RoM). Although
Needle picking is a challenging manipulation task in robot-assisted surgery due to the characteristics of small slender shapes of needles, needles' variations in shapes and sizes, and demands for millimeter-level control. Prior works, heavily relying on the prior of needles (e.g., geometric models),…
Projected Inverse Dynamics Control (PIDC) is commonly used in robots subject to contact, especially in quadrupedal systems. Many methods based on such dynamics have been developed for quadrupedal locomotion tasks, and only a few works studied simple interactions between the robot and environment, su…
Falling cat problem is well-known where cats show their super aerial reorientation capability and can land safely. For their robotic counterparts, a similar falling quadruped robot problem, has not been fully addressed, although achieving safe landing as the cats has been increasingly investigated.…
Learning high-performance deep neural networks for dynamic modeling of high Degree-Of-Freedom (DOF) robots remains challenging due to the sampling complexity. Typical unknown system disturbance caused by unmodeled dynamics (such as internal compliance, cables) further exacerbates the problem. In thi
The assumption of fixed contact between robots and deformable objects (DOs) is widely used by previous DO manipulation (DOM) studies. However, the fixed contact setting is inapplicable to many real-life applications due to various factors, such as the end-effector's type and the DO's intrinsic mater
In this paper, we propose an operational space control formulation for a planar N-link underactuated manipulator (PAN–1)1 with a passive first joint subject to actuator constraints (N ⩾ 3), covering both stabilization and tracking tasks. Such underactuated manipulators have an inherent first-order n…
In this letter, we propose a unified framework to address underactuated orientation control problems of the tailed robot in flight phase through a 2 DoFs actuated tail. We approach the underactuated control problem from the perspective of an inverse problem of an over-constrained Jacobian matrix. Th
Organ retraction is a common and important task in minimally invasive surgery. It is a surgical technique to push aside or manipulate tissues/organs to improve the access and visualization of the surgical sites. Typical manual retractors are rigid and without any articulation. Physicians often strug