Article
Automation & Control Systems
Daojin Yao, Lin Yang, Xiaohui Xiao, MengChu Zhou
Summary: This article develops a gait planning method for underactuated bipedal robot to walk on uneven and compliant terrain by controlling and tracking the robot's CoM and desired velocity.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRIAL ELECTRONICS
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
John Grezmak, Nicole Graf, Alexander Behr, Kathryn Daltorio
Summary: A novel approach for terrain classification for legged robots is presented, using low cost Hall effect magnetometers to gather terrain information. The method is demonstrated to be highly effective in a beach environment, achieving an accuracy of up to 99.3%. Combining information from different sensor modalities can lead to even higher accuracy in classification.
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Multidisciplinary
Jun Tang, Yudi Zhu, Wencong Gan, Haiming Mou, Jie Leng, Qingdu Li, Zhiqiang Yu, Jianwei Zhang
Summary: This paper presents the development, modeling, and control of L03, a 3D bipedal robot with symmetrical hips and straight legs. It focuses on exploring underactuated symmetrical designs and determining the number of motors required for omnidirectional movement. The results demonstrate that L03 achieves stable walking and adheres closely to the characteristics of the linear inverted pendulum model, making it a valuable platform for future algorithm research.
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Jianwei Zhao, Tao Han, Shouzhong Wang, Chengxiang Liu, Jianhua Fang, Shengyi Liu
Summary: This paper designs and develops an all-terrain wheel-legged hybrid robot (WLHR) with strong adaptability to complex terrains, which combines the stability of wheeled mechanism and the obstacle-crossing ability of the legged mechanism for various road conditions. The theoretical analysis and experimental results demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the designed WLHR.
Article
Engineering, Mechanical
Yue Zhao, Feng Gao, Qiao Sun, Yunpeng Yin
Summary: This paper presents a terrain classification and adaptive locomotion method for a hexapod robot, which utilizes force-based terrain classification by collecting joint torques and IMU information, and proposes dynamic alternating tripod trotting gait for adaptive locomotion on different ground properties. The method is shown effective for the hexapod robot to walk on concrete, wood, grass, and foam, providing valuable reference for other legged robots in outdoor environments.
FRONTIERS OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
(2021)
Article
Robotics
Xiaobin Xiong, Aaron Ames
Summary: This article presents a hybrid-linear inverted pendulum (H-LIP) based approach for synthesizing and stabilizing 3-D foot-underactuated bipedal walking. The H-LIP captures the essential components of the underactuated and actuated part of the robotic walking, and the robot walking gait is directly synthesized based on it. By approximating the step-to-step dynamics, a H-LIP based stepping controller provides desired step sizes to stabilize the robotic walking, resulting in dynamic and stable walking. The approach is evaluated on the 3-D underactuated bipedal robot Cassie, demonstrating versatile and robust dynamic walking behaviors.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ROBOTICS
(2022)
Review
Engineering, Multidisciplinary
Adriana Torres-Pardo, David Pinto-Fernandez, Manolo Garabini, Franco Angelini, David Rodriguez-Cianca, Stefano Massardi, Jesus Tornero, Juan C. Moreno, Diego Torricelli
Summary: This review explores the existence of common protocols and metrics for testing the performance of legged systems in realistic environments. The study reveals a lack of agreed methodology, making it difficult to assess and compare the performance of existing legged systems. The work provides a library of methods, metrics, and experimental protocols, along with a critical analysis of the current approaches and future directions.
BIOINSPIRATION & BIOMIMETICS
(2022)
Article
Engineering, Mechanical
Alexander G. Steele, Apploinaire Etoundi, Alexander J. Hunt
Summary: This article presents experimental test results for joints used in a biomimetic bipedal robot. By using MRI and CT scans, joints of similar size and function to the biological counterparts were designed and constructed. The range of motion and passive stiffness of these joints were tested, and the results showed a match between the physical knee prototype and previous simulations. The hybrid hard-soft joints were characterized, providing insights for improved control and application in prosthetic designs and robotics.
JOURNAL OF MECHANISMS AND ROBOTICS-TRANSACTIONS OF THE ASME
(2023)
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Arthicha Srisuchinnawong, Kitti Phongaksorn, Wasuthorn Ausrivong, Poramate Manoonpong
Summary: This work presents a novel adaptive bipedal robot and neural multimodal locomotion control for semiautonomous robotic out-pipe inspection. The robot can balance on curved surfaces, climb pipes with limited energy, overcome obstacles, and perform stable transitions between pipe segments. It achieves 100% successful locomotion on horizontal and vertical smooth pipes, with a speed of 10.24 cm/s and a cost of transport of 26.3 J/kgm, showing over 200% improvement in speed and energy efficiency compared to existing legged inspection robots.
IEEE-ASME TRANSACTIONS ON MECHATRONICS
(2023)
Article
Robotics
Xiaobin Xiong, Aaron Ames
Summary: The control method proposed decouples the vertical and horizontal states and utilizes BBF and H-LIP for control and stabilization, enabling aSLIP to walk on various terrains.
IEEE ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Computer Science, Information Systems
Hyeonjung Lim, Seung-Won Kim, Jae-Bok Song, Youngsu Cha
Summary: A novel soft mobile robot based on piezoelectric materials was proposed, featuring a thin film body and a soft tail with a unique structure combining a fin and a curved piezoelectric film. Experimental demonstrations showed performance and investigated resonance frequency and tail shape parameters, with tests on movement repeatability. By utilizing a curved piezoelectric tail with a fin, a mobile robot with a thin and flexible body was built, showing good mobility at low body weights and multi-tailed conditions through analysis of various robot configurations.
Article
Robotics
Erman Selim, Musa Alci, Mert Altintas
Summary: A variable time interval trajectory optimization method is proposed in this study to increase the optimization accuracy and reduce the cost of transport for walking robots.
Article
Robotics
Shouhei Noji, Shunsuke Nansai, Norihiro Kamamichi, Hiroshi Itoh
Summary: This study implements trajectory-tracking control for a lizard-inspired single-actuated robot using a novel morphology. High reproducibility is obtained between kinematic analysis and the behavior of the actual robot. The study formulates the kinematics of the robot and designs a trajectory-tracking control system based on PID control, which is verified through experiments and simulations.
IEEE ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Robotics
Lu Gan, Jessy W. Grizzle, Ryan M. Eustice, Maani Ghaffari
Summary: This work presents a deep inverse reinforcement learning method for legged robots terrain traversability modeling using both exteroceptive and proprioceptive sensory data. By incorporating robot-specific inertial features, the model fidelity is improved and a reward dependent on the robot's state during deployment is provided. The proposed method utilizes the Maximum Entropy Deep Inverse Reinforcement Learning algorithm and trajectory ranking loss to optimize legged robot demonstrations. The evaluation is conducted using a dataset from an MIT Mini-Cheetah robot and a Mini-Cheetah simulator.
IEEE ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Computer Science, Information Systems
Qilun Wang, Qing Li, Mingguo Zhao
Summary: This study presents a novel reactive terrain estimation system for humanoid robots using a state observer. By combining impedance system and gait planning, the designed observer effectively reduces terrain estimation errors, improves accuracy, and enhances the stability of the control system.
Article
Robotics
Wesley Roozing, Zeyu Ren, Nikos G. Tsagarakis
Summary: This study introduces a novel three-degree-of-freedom compliantly actuated leg called eLeg, employing efficient actuation design and control strategies. Experimental results demonstrate significant improvements in electrical energy consumption compared to traditional actuation configurations.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ROBOTICS RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Polymer Science
Srinivasarao Yaragalla, Muhammad Zahid, Jaya Kumar Panda, Nikolaos Tsagarakis, Roberto Cingolani, Athanassia Athanassiou
Summary: A simple and scalable fabrication process of graphene nanoplatelets (GnPs)-reinforced polyether ether ketone (PEEK) filaments with enhanced mechanical and thermal performance was successfully demonstrated. The addition of GnPs to PEEK improved the thermal stability of the polymer matrix, but excessive GnPs content can negatively affect the mechanical performance.
Article
Robotics
Vishnu Dev Amara, Jorn Malzahn, Wesley Roozing, Nikos Tsagarakis
Summary: This study explores and validates two methods for enhancing the explosive motion capabilities of series elastic actuated robots during standing jumps. By combining field weakening control and energy-efficient parallel elastic actuators, a significant performance increase of up to 54% in jump height is achieved, demonstrating the effectiveness of the approach in improving the explosive capabilities of these robots.
IEEE ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Robotics
J. Ding, C. Zhou, S. Xin, X. Xiao, N. G. Tsagarakis
Summary: The study introduces a novel Nonlinear Model Predictive Control framework for generating robust walking patterns that adapt multiple balance strategies, and demonstrates adaptable walking capabilities in various scenarios through simulation studies.
Article
Computer Science, Information Systems
Vignesh Sushrutha Raghavan, Dimitrios Kanoulas, Darwin G. Caldwell, Nikos G. Tsagarakis
Summary: This article discusses legged and wheeled locomotion methods used by robots for navigation, and the advantages of combining them to create a hybrid legged-wheeled locomotion. The article presents a review of a previously presented legged-wheeled footprint reconfiguring global planner, as well as new work on local obstacle pushing. The combination of these global and local planners forms a major part of the agile reconfigurable navigation suite for the legged-wheeled hybrid CENTAURO robot.
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Gaofeng Li, Jingtai Liu, Ioannis Sarakoglou, Nikos G. Tsagarakis
Summary: The development of new materials and actuators has led to the rapid growth of new types of robots in robotics, such as soft/continuum robots, reconfigurable robots, exoskeleton robots, haptic master devices, and so on. However, there is still a lack of theoretical investigation on the orientability performance index in robot design. In this article, a novel orientability index based on the angle-axis space is proposed to evaluate the dexterity of robots, and its effectiveness is validated.
IEEE-ASME TRANSACTIONS ON MECHATRONICS
(2022)
Article
Robotics
Konstantinos Tsinganos, Konstantinos Chatzilygeroudis, Denis Hadjivelichkov, Theodoros Komninos, Evangelos Dermatas, Dimitrios Kanoulas
Summary: This paper proposes a method called Behavior Policy Learning (BPL) that effectively solves multi-stage tasks without requiring strong knowledge about the underlying task. The method combines solution sketches, model-based controllers, and simulations to learn high-level trajectories and improve policy robustness. The Sim2Real capabilities of the method are validated through both simulation and real-world experiments.
FRONTIERS IN ROBOTICS AND AI
(2022)
Editorial Material
Automation & Control Systems
Adam Jacoff, Jeongmin Jeon, Oliver Huke, Dimitrios Kanoulas, Seehoon Ha, Donghyun Kim, Hyungpil Moon
IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Biomedical
Yusuke Hirao, Weiwei Wan, Dimitrios Kanoulas, Kensuke Harada
Summary: This paper introduces a remotely operated robotic system with two mobile manipulators to extend the functional capabilities of a human body. The system allows for enlarging the workspace and manipulating large or long objects. It utilizes a joystick for controlling the mobile base and robotic gripper, and a motion capture system for controlling the arm poses, enabling tele-operated dual-arm and large-space manipulation. Experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed system in extending the human body to a large space while retaining the advantages of having two limbs.
CYBORG AND BIONIC SYSTEMS
(2023)
Proceedings Paper
Automation & Control Systems
Stylianos Piperakis, Michael Maravgakis, Dimitrios Kanoulas, Panos Trahanias
Summary: In this article, a deep learning framework is proposed for leg contact detection in humanoid robot walking gaits. The framework uses proprioceptive sensing and accurately estimates the contact state probability for each leg. It shows stability and generalization across different friction surfaces and legged robotic platforms, and performs well in simulation and real robot experiments.
2022 IEEE/RSJ INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INTELLIGENT ROBOTS AND SYSTEMS (IROS)
(2022)
Proceedings Paper
Automation & Control Systems
Julius Sustarevas, Dimitrios Kanoulas, Simon Julier
Summary: Mobile 3D Printing (M3DP), using printing-in-motion, is a powerful paradigm for automated construction. In this paper, we extend previous work on M3DP to robot control and compare different methods of integrating the planned path with a short horizon Model Predictive Controller. Through experiments, we demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of our algorithm in a 250m long multilayer print.
2022 IEEE/RSJ INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INTELLIGENT ROBOTS AND SYSTEMS (IROS)
(2022)
Proceedings Paper
Automation & Control Systems
Kirsty Ellis, Henry Zhang, Danail Stoyanov, Dimitrios Kanoulas
Summary: This paper introduces a novel system integration for handling Navigation Among Movable Obstacles (NAMO) using visual feedback. It explores the capabilities of the system through graph-based path planning in a photorealistic simulator and validates the method on a real-world mobile wheeled robot.
2022 IEEE/RSJ INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INTELLIGENT ROBOTS AND SYSTEMS (IROS)
(2022)
Proceedings Paper
Automation & Control Systems
Matteo Parigi Polverini, Enrico Mingo Hoffman, Arturo Laurenzi, Nikos G. Tsagarakis
Summary: This study presents a control architecture for agile actions, separating offline optimal control planning of lower-body primitives and online control of upper-body motion for balance. To address the research challenges posed by the centaur-type humanoid platform, researchers introduce three stabilizing strategies for comparison in simulated jumps and experimental validation on the CENTAURO robot.
2021 IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION (ICRA 2021)
(2021)
Proceedings Paper
Automation & Control Systems
I Belli, M. Parigi Polverini, A. Laurenzi, E. Mingo Hoffman, P. Rocco, N. G. Tsagarakis
Summary: This paper presents a trajectory optimization approach for the motion generation problem of a wheeled-legged quadrupedal robot, incorporating a unicycle model for each leg to generate various locomotion strategies. The effectiveness of the approach has been experimentally validated on the humanoid quadruped CENTAURO.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2020 IEEE-RAS 20TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HUMANOID ROBOTS (HUMANOIDS 2020)
(2021)
Proceedings Paper
Automation & Control Systems
Eamon Barrett, Jorn Malzahn, Nikos Tsagarakis
Summary: Softer series elastic actuators provide higher torque resolution and better torque transparency for soft physical interaction with the environment, while stiffer series elastic actuators enable fast, strong, and powerful physical interaction. Progressive stiffness compliant elements can make the actuator inherently soft at low torque levels and stiffer at higher levels, addressing design trade-offs. The proposed solution, based on radially oriented linear springs, achieves a passive elastic element without complex nonlinear transmissions, resulting in a cubic polynomial torque-deflection characteristic with low hysteresis.
2021 IEEE/ASME INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ADVANCED INTELLIGENT MECHATRONICS (AIM)
(2021)
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Runwei Guan, Shanliang Yao, Lulu Liu, Xiaohui Zhu, Ka Lok Man, Yong Yue, Jeremy Smith, Eng Gee, Yutao Yue
Summary: With the development of Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs), the perception of inland waterways has become significant. Traditional RGB cameras cannot work effectively in adverse weather and at night, which has led to the emergence of 4D millimeter-wave radar as a new perception sensor. However, the radar suffers from water-surface clutter and irregular shape of point cloud. To address these issues, this paper proposes a high-performance panoptic perception model called Mask-VRDet, which fuses features of vision and radar using graph neural network.
ROBOTICS AND AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS
(2024)
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Adrien Le Reun, Kevin Subrin, Anthony Dubois, Sebastien Garnier
Summary: This study aims to evaluate the quality and health of aerospace parts using a high-dimensional robotic cell. By utilizing X-ray Computed Tomography devices, the interior of the parts can be reconstructed and anomalies can be detected. A methodology is proposed to assess both the raw process capability and the improved process capability, with three strategies developed to improve the robot behavior model and calibration.
ROBOTICS AND AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS
(2024)
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Weiming Ba, Jung-Che Chang, Jing Liu, Xi Wang, Xin Dong, Dragos Axinte
Summary: This paper proposes a hybrid scheme for kinematic control of continuum robots, which avoids errors through tension supervision and accurate piecewise linear approximation. The effectiveness of the controller is verified on different continuum robotic systems.
ROBOTICS AND AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS
(2024)
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Gabriele Abbate, Alessandro Giusti, Viktor Schmuck, Oya Celiktutan, Antonio Paolillo
Summary: In this study, a learning-based approach is proposed to predict the probability of human users interacting with a robot before the interaction begins. By considering the pose and motion of the user, the approach labels the robot's encounters with humans in a self-supervised manner. The method is validated and deployed in various scenarios, achieving high accuracy in predicting user intentions to interact with the robot.
ROBOTICS AND AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS
(2024)
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Tiago Cortinhal, Eren Erdal Aksoy
Summary: This work presents a new depth-and semantics-aware conditional generative model, named TITAN-Next, for cross-domain image-to-image translation between LiDAR and camera sensors. The model is able to translate raw LiDAR point clouds to RGB-D camera images by solely relying on semantic scene segments, and it has practical applications in fields like autonomous vehicles.
ROBOTICS AND AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS
(2024)
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Marios Krestenitis, Emmanuel K. Raptis, Athanasios Ch. Kapoutsis, Konstantinos Ioannidis, Elias B. Kosmatopoulos, Stefanos Vrochidis
Summary: This paper addresses the issue of informative path planning for a UAV used in precision agriculture. By using a non-uniform scanning approach, the time spent in areas with minimal value is reduced, while maintaining high precision in information-dense regions. A novel active sensing and deep learning-based coverage path planning approach is proposed, which adjusts the UAV's speed based on the quantity and confidence level of identified plant classes.
ROBOTICS AND AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS
(2024)
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Shota Kokubu, Pablo E. Tortos Vinocour, Wenwei Yu
Summary: In this study, a new modular soft actuator was proposed to improve the support performance of soft rehabilitation gloves (SRGs). Objective evaluations and clinical tests were conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness and functionality of the proposed actuator and SRG.
ROBOTICS AND AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS
(2024)
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Jinliang Zhu, Yuanxi Sun, Jie Xiong, Yiyang Liu, Jia Zheng, Long Bai
Summary: This paper proposes an active prosthetic knee joint with a variable stiffness parallel elastic actuation mechanism. Numerical verifications and practical experiments demonstrate that the mechanism can reduce torque and power, thus reducing energy consumption and improving the endurance of the prosthetic knee joint.
ROBOTICS AND AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS
(2024)
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Yong You, Jingtao Wu, Yunlong Meng, Dongye Sun, Datong Qin
Summary: A new power-cycling variable transmission (PCVT) is proposed and applied to construction vehicles to improve transmission efficiency. A shift correction strategy is developed based on identifying the changes in construction vehicles' mass and gradient. Simulation results show that the proposed method can correct shift points, improve operation efficiency, and ensure a safer operation process.
ROBOTICS AND AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS
(2024)
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Shaorui Liu, Wei Tian, Jianxin Shen, Bo Li, Pengcheng Li
Summary: This paper proposes a two-objective optimization technique for multi-robot systems, addressing the issue of balancing productivity and machining performance in high-quality machining tasks.
ROBOTICS AND AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS
(2024)
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Pengchao Ding, Faben Zhu, Hongbiao Zhu, Gongcheng Wang, Hua Bai, Han Wang, Dongmei Wu, Zhijiang Du, Weidong Wang
Summary: We propose an autonomous approaching scheme for mobile robot traversing obstacle stairwells, which overcomes the restricted field of vision caused by obstacles. The scheme includes stair localization, structural parameter estimation, and optimization of the approaching process.
ROBOTICS AND AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS
(2024)
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Pedro Azevedo, Vitor Santos
Summary: Accurate detection and tracking of vulnerable road users and traffic objects are vital tasks for autonomous driving and driving assistance systems. This paper proposes a solution for object detection and tracking in an autonomous driving scenario, comparing different object detectors and exploring the deployment on edge devices. The effectiveness of DeepStream technology and different object trackers is assessed using the KITTI tracking dataset.
ROBOTICS AND AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS
(2024)
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Benjamin Beiter, Divya Srinivasan, Alexander Leonessa
Summary: Powered exoskeletons can significantly reduce physical workload and have great potential impact on future labor practices. To truly assist users in achieving task goals, a shared autonomy control framework is proposed to separate the control objectives of the human and exoskeleton. Positive Power control is introduced for the human-based controller, while 'acceptance' is used as a measure of matching the exoskeleton's control objective to the human's. Both control objectives are implemented in an optimization-based Whole-Body-Control structure. The results verify the effectiveness of the control framework and its potential for improving cooperative control for powered exoskeletons.
ROBOTICS AND AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS
(2024)
