ICRA 2024 论文列表

It is difficult to guarantee an empty living environment to prevent unexpected contact between the object being manipulated by the robot and unplanned obstacles. In this paper, we propose a planar compliant contact control method for planar manipulation to cope with unexpected contact. We first use sheet gel as a multi-dimensional passive elastic element and combine it with a two-finger gripper to design a multi-dimensional elastic gripper. Subsequently, we explore the lumped parameter model for the force-displacement relationship of gel deformation and combine the model with the high impedance motion of robots to design an elastic interaction controller. The controller not only actively adjusts the deformation of the gel to provide the desired contact force and torque depending on contact, but also performs avoidance by following the surface of obstacles. Finally, we design and deploy several planar compliant contact experiments to validate the proposed method and demonstrate the unexpected contact response in human-robot co-packing. The results show that our method enables the robot to remain compliant in the face of unexpected contact caused by unplanned obstacles, which provides a guarantee for safe manipulation. Physics experiments can be viewed in the attached video.

The inherent elasticity of soft materials can be used to create robotic grippers that deform and comply to a variety of irregular shapes. To date, several soft adaptive grasping strategies have been reported, however, most of them focus on adapting to the overall shape of the structure, while the adaptive grasping of small surface asperities is overlooked. In this paper, we propose a novel method to achieve adaptive grasping on surface asperities with a smart shape-memory silicone sponge. Heating above 60°C makes the sponge soft and deformable to allow it to penetrate within surface asperities via a pressure normal to the surface. Cooling down below 60°C makes the sponge "jam" to retain its deformed shape. The interlocking force between the jammed sponge and the asperities, and the increased area of contact, allows for adaptive grasping on asperities down to 0.4 mm with an adhesive force of up to 27.7 N in a 40 × 40 mm contacting area. We introduce the design, working principle, fabrication, and optimization of a robotic gripper based on this shape-memory silicone sponge. This sponge-jamming gripper shows great potential for developing next-generation robotic grippers for the manipulation of textured and discontinuous surfaces.

Preserving and encouraging mobility in the elderly and adults with chronic conditions is of paramount importance. However, existing walking aids are either inadequate to provide sufficient support to users’ stability or too bulky and poorly maneuverable to be used outside hospital environments. In addition, they all lack adaptability to individual requirements. To address these challenges, this paper introduces WANDER, a novel Walking Assistive omNi-Directional Exo-Robot. It consists of an omnidirectional platform and a robust aluminum structure mounted on top of it, which provides partial body weight support. A comfortable and minimally restrictive coupling interface embedded with a force/torque sensor allows to detect users’ intentions, which are translated into command velocities by means of a variable admittance controller. An optimization technique based on users’ preferences, i.e., Preference-Based Optimization (PBO) guides the choice of the admittance parameters (i.e., virtual mass and damping) to better fit subject-specific needs and characteristics. Experiments with twelve healthy subjects exhibited a significant decrease in energy consumption and jerk when using WANDER with PBO parameters as well as improved user performance and comfort. The great interpersonal variability in the optimized parameters highlights the importance of personalized control settings when walking with an assistive device, aiming to enhance users’ comfort and mobility while ensuring reliable physical support.

Many robotic hands currently rely on extremely dexterous robotic fingers and a thumb joint to envelop themselves around an object. Few hands focus on the palm even though human hands greatly benefit from their central fold and soft surface. As such, we develop a novel structurally compliant soft palm, which enables more surface area contact for the objects that are pressed into it. Moreover, this design, along with the development of a new low-cost, flexible illumination system, is able to incorporate a high-resolution tactile sensing system inspired by the GelSight sensors. Concurrently, we design RObotic Modular Endoskeleton Optical (ROMEO) fingers, which are underactuated two-segment soft fingers that are able to house the new illumination system, and we integrate them into these various palm configurations. The resulting robotic hand is slightly bigger than a baseball and represents one of the first soft robotic hands with actuated fingers and a passively compliant palm, all of which have high-resolution tactile sensing. This design also potentially helps researchers discover and explore more soft-rigid tactile robotic hand designs with greater capabilities in the future.

In the context of telehealth, robotic approaches have proven a valuable solution to in-person visits in remote areas, with decreased costs for patients and infection risks. In particular, in ultrasonography, robots have the potential to reproduce the skills required to acquire high-quality images while reducing the sonographer’s physical efforts. In this paper, we address the control of the interaction of the probe with the patient’s body, a critical aspect of ensuring safe and effective ultrasonography. We introduce a novel approach based on variable impedance control, allowing the real-time optimisation of compliant controller parameters during ultrasound procedures. This optimisation is formulated as a quadratic programming problem and incorporates physical constraints derived from viscoelastic parameter estimations. Safety and passivity constraints, including an energy tank, are also integrated to minimise potential risks during human-robot interaction. The proposed method’s efficacy is demonstrated through experiments on a patient’s dummy torso, highlighting its potential for achieving safe behaviour and accurate force control during ultrasound procedures, even in cases of contact loss.

As autonomous systems evolve, the precise calibration of lidar and camera sensors remains a pivotal concern. Among the myriad of available techniques, target-based calibration methods, which employ planar boards with distinct geometry and image patterns, have been a popular choice. These methods simplify the task of extracting corresponding features between the image and lidar point cloud. But many of these approaches also face a significant challenge, which is their sensitivity to lidar resolution and Field of View (FOV), which may degrade the reliability of the calibration results. Therefore, our research introduces a novel calibration method using a uniquely designed acrylic checkerboard which allows the lidar beam to pass through the white grids and reflect back from the black grids. This innovative technique sidesteps the common challenges associated with lidar feature extraction. Our method’s distinct advantage lies in its ability to perform accurate calibrations at close distances, owing to the efficient feature extraction from both lidar and camera sensors. This novel, efficient, and accurate method can provide state-of-the-art results for camera lidar calibration in the field. Please also check our Github repository: https://github.com/WPI-APA-Lab/Acrylic-Board-Lidar-Camera-Calibration

In recent years, wide-area visual surveillance systems have been widely applied in various industrial and transportation scenarios. These systems, however, face significant challenges when implementing multi-object detection due to conflicts arising from the need for high-resolution imaging, efficient object searching, and accurate localization. To address these challenges, this paper presents a hybrid system that incorporates a wide-angle camera, a high-speed search camera, and a galvano-mirror. In this system, the wide-angle camera offers panoramic images as prior information, which helps the search camera capture detailed images of the targeted objects. This integrated approach enhances the overall efficiency and effectiveness of wide-area visual detection systems. Specifically, in this study, we introduce a wide-angle camera-based method to generate a panoramic probability map (PPM) for estimating high-probability regions of target object presence. Then, we propose a probability searching module that uses the PPM-generated prior information to dynamically adjust the sampling range and refine target coordinates based on uncertainty variance computed by the object detector. Finally, the integration of PPM and the probability searching module yields an efficient hybrid vision system capable of achieving 120 fps multi-object search and detection. Extensive experiments are conducted to verify the system’s effectiveness and robustness.

Robot-assisted vascular interventional surgery can isolate interventionists and X-ray radiation, and improve surgical accuracy. However, the leader side outside the operating room still has problems such as incomplete collection of operating information and unrealistic tactile feedback. The main objective of this paper is to design a haptic interface that can simultaneously capture the force-position information of the interventionists and generate force to assist the interventionists in performing surgeries on the leader side. It can capture the interventionists’ delivery displacement, twisting angle, clamping force, and provide real-time force feedback. A leader-follower bidirectional force feedback control strategy was proposed. Based on this strategy, on the one hand, the interventionist perceives the multi-modal information fed back from the follower side, makes judgments, and actively adjusts the surgical operation. On the other hand, the interventionist controls the grasping state of the instruments remotely to control the safety operating force threshold. Finally, the experimental setup was built and a series of evaluation experiments were performed. The experimental results verified the feasibility of the designed haptic interface. It can generate dynamic and accurate force feedback and realize leader-follower grasping force control.

Bronchoscopy, as an essential minimally invasive diagnostic and therapeutic modality, assumes a pivotal role in the early detection of lung cancer. However, the complex anatomy of the airway and the fixed length of the bronchoscope’s bending segment, along with its external propulsion property, pose challenges, including the risk of bleeding. This paper introduces a 4 mm diameter robot-assisted bronchoscope with a spring-based extensible segment. By manipulating two driven rods, the segment can be lengthened or shortened. The advantages of the extensible segment are discussed in two main aspects through theoretical analysis and experimentation. Firstly, the extensible segment enables the bronchoscope to move in a follow-the-leader motion mode or fixed-angle motion mode, navigating through narrow corners that are inaccessible to fixed-length bronchoscopes. It can also be shortened to increase its stiffness when it reaches the target position, creating a stable surgical platform for procedures like biopsies. In addition, a tailored master device has been developed to control the extensible bronchoscope in an isotropic manner. Phantom experiments confirm the feasibility and effectiveness of the extensible bronchoscope.

Continuum robots with variable stiffness have gained wide popularity in the last decade. Layer jamming (LJ) has emerged as a simple and efficient technique to achieve tunable stiffness for continuum robots. Despite its merits, the development of a control-oriented dynamical model 1 tailored for this specific class of robots remains an open problem in the literature. This paper aims to present the first solution, to the best of our knowledge, to close the gap. We propose an energy-based model that is integrated with the LuGre frictional model for LJ-based continuum robots. Then, we take a comprehensive theoretical analysis for this model, focusing on two fundamental characteristics of LJ-based continuum robots: shape locking and adjustable stiffness. To validate the modeling approach and theoretical results, a series of experiments using our OctRobot-I continuum robotic platform was conducted. The results show that the proposed model is capable of interpreting and predicting the dynamical behaviors in LJ-based continuum robots.

This paper introduces a novel funnel-based adaptive {{\mathcal{L}}_1}{{\mathcal{L}}_1} fuzzy control strategy for assisting ankle joint movement during walking with the use of an actuated ankle foot orthosis (AAFO). A projection-based adaptation mechanism employing a fuzzy system is used to estimate the unknown time-varying parameters of the {{\mathcal{L}}_1}{{\mathcal{L}}_1} control law, ensuring precise tracking of the AAFO-wearer system by the state estimator. The projection operator guarantees the convergence of the parameters while offering a limited amount of assistance torque. Funnel-based feedback control is used to mitigate the typical time lag seen when using {{\mathcal{L}}_1}{{\mathcal{L}}_1}-based approaches due to the presence of a low-pass filter commonly used in this type of approach. The effectiveness of the proposed control strategy is demonstrated through real-time experiments involving five healthy subjects.

Fish schools present high-efficiency group behaviors to collective migration and dynamic escape from the predator through simple individual interactions. The purpose of this research is to infuse swarm robots with "fish-like" intelligence that will enable safe navigation and efficient cooperation, and successful completion of escape tasks in changing environments. In this paper, a novel fish-inspired self-adaptive approach is proposed for the collective escape of swarm robots. A bio-inspired neural network (BINN) is introduced to generate collision-free escape trajectories through the dynamics of neural activity and the combination of attractive and repulsive forces. In addition, a neurodynamics-based self-adaptive mechanism is proposed to improve the self-adaptive performance of the swarm robots in dynamic environments. Similar to fish escape maneuvers, simulations and real-robot experiments show that the swarm robots can collectively leave away from the threat and respond to sudden environmental changes. Several comparison studies demonstrated that the proposed approach can significantly improve the effectiveness, efficiency, and flexibility of swarm robots in complex environments.

Ensuring safe interaction between humans and robots is an important challenge in robotics. In recent years, researchers have developed many different soft robots. One possibility to reach this goal is to integrate mechanical springs into their joints. The forthcoming generation of soft robots will be adaptable for joint stiffness to accommodate various tasks. Consequently, the development of variable stiffness joints (VSA) has become crucial. Among the prevalent approaches for stiffness adjustment, lever mechanisms have been implemented in numerous variable stiffness joints. Nonetheless, the integration of the lever technology into VSA often faces challenges in achieving a compact design. This paper introduces a new mechanically compact design for a novel lever-cam based variable stiffness joint, which has been patent under the grand by the german Patentamt.

In this paper, we present a new paradigm for evaluating egocentric pedestrian trajectory prediction algorithms. Based on various contextual information, we extract driving scenarios for a meaningful and systematic approach to identifying challenges for prediction models. In this regard, we also propose a new metric for more effective ranking within the scenario-based evaluation. We conduct extensive empirical studies of existing models on these scenarios to expose shortcomings and strengths of different approaches. The scenario-based analysis highlights the importance of using multimodal sources of information and challenges caused by inadequate modeling of ego-motion and scale of pedestrians. To this end, we propose a novel egocentric trajectory prediction model that benefits from multimodal sources of data fused in an effective and efficient step-wise hierarchical fashion and two auxiliary tasks designed to learn more robust representation of scene dynamics. We conduct empirical evaluation on common benchmark datasets and show that our model not only achieves state-of-the-art performance, but also significantly improves performance by up to 39% in challenging scenarios, such as high ego-speed, compared to the past arts1.

Aquatic robots require an accurate and reliable localization system to navigate autonomously and perform practical missions. Kalman filters (KFs) and their variants are typically used in aquatic robots to combine sensor data. The two critical drawbacks of KFs are the requirement for skilled tuning of several filter parameters and the fact that changes to how the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) is oriented necessitate modifying the filter. To overcome those problems, this paper presents a novel method of fusing sensor data from a Doppler Velocity Log (DVL) and IMU using an adaptive nonlinear estimator to provide dead reckoning localization for a small autonomous surface vehicle. The proposed method has only one insensitive tuning parameter and is agnostic to the configuration of the IMU. The system was validated using a small ASV in a 2.4×3.6×2.4 m water tank, with a motion capture system as ground truth, and was evaluated against a state-of-the-art method based on KFs. Experiments showed that the average drift error of the nonlinear filter was 0.16 m (s.d. 0.06 m) compared to 0.15 m (s.d. 0.05 m) for the state of the art, meaning that the benefits in terms of tuning and flexible configuration do not come at the expense of performance.

Deep learning models have revolutionized various domains but have also raised concerns regarding their security and reliability. Adversarial attacks and coverage-based testing have been extensively studied to assess and enhance the dependability of deep neural networks. However, current research in this area has reached a state of stagnation. Adversarial attacks focus on exploiting vulnerabilities in models, while coverage-based testing aims to achieve comprehensive testing but overlooks application scenarios. Moreover, evaluating test cases solely based on their fault-revealing capability is insufficient. To address these limitations, we propose an innovative interdisciplinary framework that incorporates human-computer interaction methods in deep learning security testing. By considering the attributes of model application scenarios, we can design more effective test suites that intend to reveal the model's behavior across various scenarios, aiding in the identification of potential defects. Consequently, the test suite plays a crucial role in the testing process of deep learning models, contributing to the assurance of model robustness and reliability. Additionally, we establish a comprehensive evaluation metric for test suite quality, considering factors such as diversity and naturalness. This framework promotes reliable and secure deployment of deep learning models, fostering interdisciplinary collaboration between artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction.

Tactile exploration of surfaces is a key component of everyday life, allowing us to make complex inferences about our environments even when vision is occluded. The emergence of biomimetic neuromorphic hardware in recent years has furthered our ability to create biologically plausible sensing solutions. While these platforms continue to improve in regards to latency and power consumption, within recent literature on tactile texture classification there is an emphasis on accuracy at the expense of real-time processing. In order for these tactile sensing systems to find use outside of experimental laboratory environments, it is key to design systems capable of capturing and processing data in real-time. Within this paper we present a system for the real-time classification of texture using a neuromorphic tactile sensor, a spiking neural network and a novel decision making algorithm. Our real-time system achieves classification accuracies of 94% on a dataset of 11 natural textile textures. Furthermore our system is capable of identifying textures at human-level performance in as little as 84ms. Additionally, benchmarking our system across CPU, GPU and Loihi2 hardware platforms resulted in a 96% reduction in power consumption on the neuromorphic platform. This system out-performed previous work by the authors and the state of art, both in terms of accuracy and classification speed.

Planning a public transit network is a challenging optimization problem, but essential in order to realize the benefits of autonomous buses. We propose a novel algorithm for planning networks of routes for autonomous buses. We first train a graph neural net model as a policy for constructing route networks, and then use the policy as one of several mutation operators in a evolutionary algorithm. We evaluate this algorithm on a standard set of benchmarks for transit network design, and find that it outperforms the learned policy alone by up to 20% and a plain evolutionary algorithm approach by up to 53% on realistic benchmark instances.

An object handover between a robot and a human is a coordinated action which is prone to failure for reasons such as miscommunication, incorrect actions and unexpected object properties. Existing works on handover failure detection and prevention focus on preventing failures due to object slip or external disturbances. However, there is a lack of datasets and evaluation methods that consider unpreventable failures caused by the human participant. To address this deficit, we present the multimodal Handover Failure Detection dataset, which consists of failures induced by the human participant, such as ignoring the robot or not releasing the object. We also present two baseline methods for handover failure detection: (i) a video classification method using 3D CNNs and (ii) a temporal action segmentation approach which jointly classifies the human action, robot action and overall outcome of the action. The results show that video is an important modality, but using force-torque data and gripper position help improve failure detection and action segmentation accuracy.