Publications related to Towards Peak Torque Minimization for Modular Self-folding Robots

Related publications (39)

Design of robotic physical intelligence

Bridging the performance gap between robotics and biological systems demands significant advancements across multiple domains, including mechanical design, control theory, modeling, and artificial intelligence. In this thesis, I will introduce innovative m ...

EPFL2025

Principles and Guidelines for Evaluating Social RobotNavigation Algorithms

Alexandre Massoud Alahi

A major challenge to deploying robots widely is navigation in human-populated environments, commonly referred to as social robot navigation. While the field of social navigation has advanced tremendously in recent years, the fair evaluation of algorithms t ...

ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY2025

SUTBot: A Soft Umbrella-like Tensegrity Robot with Elastic Struts for In-pipe Locomotion

Rui Wu

Compared with traditional in-pipe robots, tensegrity robots have exhibited many advantages such as light-weight, compliant, collapsible, low-cost, and rapidly manufacturable characteristics. However, published tensegrity in-pipe robots still have limited l ...

2025

GRADE: Generating Realistic and Dynamic Environments for robotics research with Isaac Sim

Chenghao Xu

Photorealistic synthetic data and novel rendering techniques significantly advanced computer vision research. However, datasets focused on computer vision applications cannot be easily applied to robotics because they typically lack physics-related informa ...

SAGE Publications2025

A Stochastic Approach to Contact-rich Manipulation

Julius Maximilian Jankowski

For robots to operate in unstructured environments, they are required to interact with objects through contact. Those contacts may be used to push objects to the side, deform objects, or manipulate objects in-hand. This thesis addresses the problem of cont ...

EPFL2025

An Ultrathin and Lightweight Soft Inflatable Actuator for Natural Tactile Sensory Feedback

Silvestro Micera

The human sense of touch converts skin deformations into electrical impulses, enabling functional tasks such as object recognition and manipulation. Providing haptic information is crucial for improving usability in applications like prosthetics. Soft actu ...

Wiley2025

Memento Mori: Reliable robustness in self-reconfigurable modular robots

Kevin Andrew Holdcroft

Modular robotics link the reliability of a centralised system with the adaptivity of a decentralised system. It is difficult for a robot with a fixed shape to be able to perform many different types of tasks. As the task space grows, the number of functi ...

EPFL2024

A Biohybrid Superorganism - Investigating honeybees' collective behaviors via interactive robotics

Rafael Botner Barmak

Social insects, such as ants, termites, and honeybees, have evolved sophisticated societies where the collaborative efforts of "simple" individuals can lead to the emergence of complex dynamics. The reliance of each organism on the collective is so great t ...

EPFL2024

Soft Robotics: A Route to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusivity in Robotics

Josephine Anna Eleanor Hughes

Robotics is entering our daily lives. The discipline is increasingly crucial in fields such as agriculture, medicine, and rescue operations, impacting our food, health, and planet. At the same time, it is becoming evident that robotic research must embrace ...

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc2024

Investigating neural resource allocation in the sensorimotor control of extra limbs

Giulia Dominijanni

The rise of robotic body augmentation brings forth new developments that will transform robotics, human-machine interaction, and wearable electronics. Extra robotic limbs, although building upon restorative technologies, bring their own set of challenges i ...

EPFL2024

Avoidance of Concave Obstacles Through Rotation of Nonlinear Dynamics

Aude Billard, Lukas Huber

Controlling complex tasks in robotic systems, such as circular motion for cleaning or following curvy lines, can be dealt with using nonlinear vector fields. This article introduces a novel approach called the rotational obstacle avoidance method (ROAM) fo ...

Ieee-Inst Electrical Electronics Engineers Inc2024

Distributed Predictive Formation Control of Autonomous Rotary-Wing Micro Aerial Vehicles

Izzet Kagan Erünsal

This doctoral thesis navigates the complex landscape of motion coordination and formation control within teams of rotary-wing Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs). Prompted by the intricate demands of real-world applications such as search and rescue or surveillan ...

EPFL2024

Robot Learning using Tensor Networks

Suhan Narayana Shetty

In various robotics applications, the selection of function approximation methods greatly influences the feasibility and computational efficiency of algorithms. Tensor Networks (TNs), also referred to as tensor decomposition techniques, present a versatile ...

EPFL2024

Towards edible robots and robotic food

Dario Floreano, Jun Shintake, Bokeon Kwak, Markéta Pankhurst

Edible robots and robotic food — edible systems that perceive, process and act upon stimulation — could open a new range of opportunities in health care, environmental management and the promotion of healthier eating habits. For example, they could enable ...

2024

Biohybrid Superorganisms—On the Design of a Robotic System for Thermal Interactions With Honeybee Colonies

Louis Arnaud Vahé Piotet, Francesco Mondada, Rafael Botner Barmak, Robert Matthew Mills, Raphael Cherfan

Social insects, such as ants, termites, and honeybees, have evolved sophisticated societies where collaboration and division of labor enhance survival of the whole colony, and are thus considered “superorganisms”. Historically, studying behaviors involving ...

2024

Hitting with Different Joints of a Robotic Manipulator

Aude Billard, Harshit Khurana

This paper builds up the skill of impact aware non prehensile manipulation through a hitting motion by allowing the robot arm to come in contact with the environment with parts other than its end effector. Hitting with other joints allows us to manipulate ...

2024

Sense in Motion with Belief Clustering: Efficient Gas Source Localization with Mobile Robots

Alcherio Martinoli, Wanting Jin

Given the patchy nature of gas plumes and the slow response of conventional gas sensors, the use of mobile robots for Gas Source Localization (GSL) tasks presents significant challenges. These aspects increase the difficulties in obtaining gas measurements ...

2024

Action Contextualization: Adaptive Task Planning and Action Tuning Using Large Language Models

Sthithpragya Gupta, Aude Billard, Kunpeng Yao, Loïc Niederhauser

Large Language Models (LLMs) present a promising frontier in robotic task planning by leveraging extensive human knowledge. Nevertheless, the current literature often overlooks the critical aspects of robots' adaptability and error correction. This work ai ...

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers2024

Small-scale robotic devices for medical interventions in the brain

Mahmut Selman Sakar, Lorenzo Francesco John Noseda

This article summarizes the recent advancements in the design, fabrication, and control of microrobotic devices for the diagnosis and treatment of brain disorders. With a focus on diverse actuation methods, we discuss how advancements in materials science ...

2024

Gas Sensing with Rotary-Wing Nano Aerial Vehicles

Chiara Ercolani

Harmful chemical compounds are released daily in warehouses, chemical plants and during environmental emergencies. Their uncontrolled dispersion contributes to the pollution of the atmosphere and threatens human and animal lives. When gas leaks occur, the ...

EPFL2024