Distributed optimization aims to leverage the local computation and communication capabilities of each agent to achieve a desired global objective. This paper addresses the distributed pose graph optimization (PGO) problem under non-convex constraints, with the goal of approximating the rotation and translation of each pose given relevant noisy measurements. To achieve this goal...
The rapid evolution of technology has created new opportunities for teleoperation, especially with the emergence of affordable Virtual Reality (VR) systems originally designed for entertainment and gaming. Teleoperation in robotics has a long history, however, its integration with VR for controlling robotic systems is currently gaining significant attention. In this study, a...
Quality inspection inspection systems are critical for maintaining product integrity. Being a repetitive task, when performed by operators only, it can be slow and error-prone. This paper introduces an automated inspection system for quality assessment in casting aluminum parts resorting to a robotic system. The method comprises two processes: filing detection and hole inspection...
This paper presents a new flight control framework for tiltrotor multirotor uncrewed aerial vehicles (MRUAVs). Tiltrotor designs offer full actuation but introduce complexity in control allocation due to actuator redundancy. We propose a new approach where the allocator is tightly coupled with the controller, ensuring that the control signals generated by the controller are...
Autonomous underwater vehicles are fundamental technologies for exploring underwater environments, with applications in climatic monitoring, defense systems, structure integrity inspection, etc. However, the localization of underwater vehicles is still a complex task, mainly due to the difficulty of using conventional communication and sensory perception, commonly in autonomous...
Mobile dual-arm robots, characterized by their high degree of freedom, often encounter challenges such as kinematic singularities and motion/force control during mobile manipulation tasks. These challenges can constrain their manipulation performance and control precision. In this paper, we first develop a manipulability optimization strategy for mobile dual-arm robots and...
This paper aims to address the issue of explicitly utilizing the joint limit avoidance, singularity avoidance, and self-motion obstacle avoidance properties of a 7-degrees-of-freedom manipulator during path planning, given a cartesian space task path. First, the redundant degree of freedom of the manipulator is represented using arm angle parameterization, and the mapping of...
The robust dynamic walking control of humanoid robots is the foundation for their application in complex scenarios. Model Predictive Control (MPC) can predict the robot’s motion state over a future time horizon to obtain optimal control inputs and has achieved significant success in walking control of legged robots. However, the high computational cost makes it challenging to...
This paper investigates the effects of gain selection in a leader-follower configuration controller on the performance and robustness of small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). Additionally, it studies the tracking problem, taking into account the delays that may appear in the system, as this represents a more coherent approximation of a real control scenario. Besides theoretical...
In pursuing Industry 5.0's vision, which emphasises human well-being and the seamless integration of robots into manufacturing processes, understanding the role of anthropomorphic design is crucial. Anthropomorphic design, where robots exhibit human-like, animal-like, or even entirely novel traits (e.g. a display scrolling text), aims to improve human–robot interaction (HRI) and...
Under unknown environments, drones should always maintain vigilance to address potential threats. In fact, unknown obstacles suddenly moving and blocking the way could generate great flight safety risks. Besides conventional static and moving obstacles, addressing such unknown malicious obstacles is crucial for enhancing drone safety, yet relevant research is scarce. In this work...
The United States Navy intends to dramatically increase its uncrewed aerial system (UAS) footprint in the future. However, there is limited data available that analyzes drone operator workload when operating in the unsteady air flow region behind the superstructure of naval vessels. The United States Naval Academy operates a fleet of 108 foot vessels for the training of future...
The efficiency of Visual Odometry (VO) is constructed from various sequential components including feature extraction, feature matching, robust displacement estimation, and so on. Recently, many studies have favored learning-based solutions as alternatives to these components. Concurrently, these solutions offer flexibility to researchers in meeting specific demands for modular...
Systems today rely heavily on sensor feed to inform an accurate operating picture. In the specific context of mobile robots and aerial assets, the integrity of this information has strong implications on risk assessment and safety. This work focuses specifically on uncertainty-aware data fusion applications in vision-driven tracking algorithms, with potential applications for...
This paper presents a novel method for identifying the mechanical parameters of flexible-joint robot axes using sinusoidal position tracking control. Accurate knowledge of mechanical parameters, such as inertia, coupling stiffness, and friction components, is important for designing effective controllers in robotic systems. These parameters are determined from integral values...
This paper investigates the effectiveness of using the Group Method of Data Handling (GMDH) and Perceptron neural controllers for a mobile robot obstacle/following avoidance application. The paper evaluates the performance of these controllers in different scenarios, analyzing parameters such as settling time, steady-state error, and overshoot. In addition, we investigate...
Path planning is crucial for unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) navigating in complex marine environments, which are often affected by multiple threat factors. Traditional path planning methods often fail to account for these factors, suffer from local optimal solutions, and lack adequate exploration and exploitation capabilities. To overcome these limitations, this paper...
Human–robot collaboration is crucial in various industries, making accurate prediction of human arm movements essential for seamless interaction. This paper presents a significant advancement in collaborative robotics by developing a hybrid model that enhances the accuracy and interpretability of human motion predictions. By integrating a Physics-Infused Model with Recurrent...
Intelligent and autonomous robots (and vehicles) largely adopt computer vision systems to help in localization, navigation and obstacle avoidance tasks. By integrating different deep learning techniques, such as Object Detection and Image Semantic Segmentation, these systems achieve high accuracy in the domain they were trained on. Nonetheless, robustly operating in different...
This study provides a thorough investigation into autonomous exploration within unknown environments, with a focus on minimizing exploration time and so fuel consumption. This research utilizes a 2D simulation environment to collect training data efficiently, facilitating the evaluation of the proposed methods’ efficiency, adaptability, and generalizability through various...
Model-based stationing refers to the process of registering a set of measurements to a model. Specifically, in the surveying context, this refers to the process of determining the station, i.e., the position and orientation, of a total station given a user-provided building floor plan and a series of polar measurements. Traditional methods compute the station using a set of known...
Mobile robots are becoming increasingly popular in a wide array of applications: industrial, item delivery, search and rescue, space, social, and entertainment. A two-wheeled self-balancing mobile robot is a statically unstable non-linear system with strong coupling dynamics. Common practices in the development of control systems for such robots are either to linearise the region...
Practical deployments of exoskeletons can often be limited by cost, limiting access to their usage by those that would benefit from them. Minimising cost whilst not harming effectiveness is therefore desirable for exoskeleton development. For Control Systems governing assistive and rehabilitative exoskeletons that react to the wearer’s movements, there will inevitably be some...
Socially assistive robotics (SARs) can provide social interventions for people living with dementia. Although several SARs have been introduced, the absence of their evaluation and discussion has restricted the development and use of robots in dementia care. This paper systematically reviews robot technologies, explores their applications, and provides systematic information for...