Publications related to Developmental robotics

An Optimal Control Formulation of Tool Affordance Applied to Impact Tasks

Humans use tools to complete impact-aware tasks, such as hammering a nail or playing tennis. The postures adopted to use these tools can significantly influence the performance of these tasks, where the force or velocity of the hand holding a tool plays a ...

Ieee-Inst Electrical Electronics Engineers Inc2024

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

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

Accessible Soft Robotics Education with Re-configurable Balloon Robots

Josephine Anna Eleanor Hughes, Kieran Daniel Gilday, Yi-Shiun Wu

Soft robotics requires effective tools to educate the next generation of engineers and researchers. Stemming from a lack of universally accepted principles for education and with high barriers to entry in terms of fabrication and hardware, education to dat ...

IEEE2023

Mean Field Type Control With Species Dependent Dynamics via Structured Tensor Optimization

Isabel Haasler, Axel Ringh, Yiqiang Chen

In this letter we consider mean field type control problems with multiple species that have different dynamics. We formulate the discretized problem using a new type of entropy-regularized multimarginal optimal transport problems where the cost is a decomp ...

2023

Ultra-tunable bistable structures for universal robotic applications

Jamie Paik, Lei Wang, Ke Liu, Hongying Zhang, Yongkang Jiang, Xin Tong

Bistable structures in nature are unparalleled for their fast response and force amplification even with the most minute physical stimula-tion. However, current works on bistable structures mainly focus on their stable states, while promising intermediate ...

CELL PRESS2023

Challenges and approaches in bridging the biomimicry gap in biohybrid systems of fish and robots

Vaios Papaspyros

As the field of ethology advances, especially over the past two decades, the role of animal-robot interaction tools has increasingly become essential. This importance arises from the need for controlled, repetitive, repeatable, and long-duration experiment ...

EPFL2023

Identifying important sensory feedback for learning locomotion skills

Auke Ijspeert, Guillaume Denis Antoine Bellegarda, Milad Shafiee Ashtiani

Robot motor skills can be acquired by deep reinforcement learning as neural networks to reflect state-action mapping. The selection of states has been demonstrated to be crucial for successful robot motor learning. However, because of the complexity of neu ...

NATURE PORTFOLIO2023

Non-verbal Communication between Humans and Robots: Imitation, Mutual Understanding and Inferring Object Properties

Nuno Ricardo Ferreira Duarte

Humans can express their actions and intentions, resorting to verbal and/or non-verbal communication. In verbal communication, humans use language to express, in structured linguistic terms, the desired action they wish to perform. Non-verbal communication ...

EPFL2023

Acoustic Levitation apparatus (Robotics Practicals)

Mahmut Selman Sakar, Lorenzo Francesco John Noseda, Amit Yedidia Dolev, Bora Yalcin

The following data contain the information and files, which are required to recreate and build the experimental setup that is described in the Laboratory manual. Further details can be found in the associated publication “A graduate laboratory experiment t ...

Zenodo2023

Piecewise Affine Curvature model: a reduced-order model for soft robot-environment interaction beyond PCC

Josephine Anna Eleanor Hughes, Francesco Stella, Qinghua Guan

Soft robot are celebrated for their propensity to enable compliant and complex robot-environment interactions. Soft robotic manipulators, or slender continuum structure robots have the potential to exploit these interactions to enable new exploration and m ...

IEEE2023

Multi-modal deformation and temperature sensing for context-sensitive machines

Jamie Paik, Fabio Zuliani, Sagar Dattatray Joshi, Neil Chennoufi, Robert Lawrence Baines

Owing to the remarkable properties of the somatosensory system, human skin compactly perceives myriad forms of physical stimuli with high precision. Machines, conversely, are often equipped with sensory suites constituted of dozens of unique sensors, each ...

Nature Portfolio2023

Computational Models of Mutual Understanding for Human-Robot Collaborative Learning

Utku Norman

There is a growing trend towards designing learning activities featuring robots as collaborative exercises where children work together to achieve the activity objectives, generating interactions that can trigger learning processes. Witnessing such activit ...

EPFL2023

Learning and optimization of anticipatory feedback controllers for robot manipulation

Hakan Girgin

Programming intelligent robots requires robust controllers that can achieve desired tasks while adapting to the changes in the task and the environment. In this thesis, we address the challenges in designing such adaptive and anticipatory feedback controll ...

EPFL2023

Mediating Computational Thinking Through Educational Robotics In Primary School

Morgane Solène Denise Chevalier

Nowadays, computational thinking (CT) is considered a skill to be taught. While educational robotics (ER) appears promising to foster students' CT, operational CT frameworks and explicit guidance in ER are lacking. This thesis thus proposes to understand h ...

EPFL2022

3PAC: A Plug-and-Play System for Distributed Power Sharing and Communication in Modular Robots

Jamie Paik, Kevin Andrew Holdcroft, Christoph Heinrich Belke

In modular robotics, there is classically a compromise between coupling complexity and functionality. The mechanical and electrical designs are linked, such that adding electrical features often requires redesigning the mechanical components. However, incr ...

IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC2022

Introducing Productive Engagement for Social Robots Supporting Learning

Jauwairia Nasir

We have all been one such student or seen such students who can maintain the 'good student' image while playing a video game under the table or those loyal backbenchers, seemingly always distracted, who then ace their exams. These intricacies of human beha ...

EPFL2022

Memory of Motion for Initializing Optimization in Robotics

Teguh Santoso Lembono

Many robotics problems are formulated as optimization problems. However, most optimization solvers in robotics are locally optimal and the performance depends a lot on the initial guess. For challenging problems, the solver will often get stuck at poor loc ...

EPFL2022

Shared Intelligence for Robot Teleoperation via BMI

José del Rocio Millán Ruiz, Luca Tonin

This article proposes a novel shared intelligence system for brain-machine interface (BMI) teleoperated mobile robots where user's intention and robot's intelligence are concurrent elements equally participating in the decision process. We designed the sys ...

IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC2022