Diego Martinez-Baselga;Eduardo Sebastián;Eduardo Montijano;Luis Riazuelo;Carlos Sagüés;Luis Montano
{"title":"AVOCADO: Adaptive Optimal Collision Avoidance Driven by Opinion","authors":"Diego Martinez-Baselga;Eduardo Sebastián;Eduardo Montijano;Luis Riazuelo;Carlos Sagüés;Luis Montano","doi":"10.1109/TRO.2025.3552350","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TRO.2025.3552350","url":null,"abstract":"We present AdaptiVe Optimal Collision Avoidance Driven by Opinion (AVOCADO), a novel navigation approach to address holonomic robot collision avoidance when the robot does not know how cooperative the other agents in the environment are. AVOCADO departs from a velocity obstacle's (VO) formulation akin to the optimal reciprocal collision avoidance method. However, instead of assuming reciprocity, it poses an adaptive control problem to adapt to the cooperation level of other robots and agents in real time. This is achieved through a novel nonlinear opinion dynamics design that relies solely on sensor observations. As a by-product, we leverage tools from the opinion dynamics formulation to naturally avoid the deadlocks in geometrically symmetric scenarios that typically suffer VO-based planners. Extensive numerical simulations show that AVOCADO surpasses existing motion planners in mixed cooperative/noncooperative navigation environments in terms of success rate, time to goal and computational time. In addition, we conduct multiple real experiments that verify that AVOCADO is able to avoid collisions in environments crowded with other robots and humans.","PeriodicalId":50388,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Robotics","volume":"41 ","pages":"2495-2511"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=10930712","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143640490","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Alexander A. Oliva;Maarten J. Jongeneel;Alessandro Saccon
{"title":"A Compact 6D Suction Cup Model for Robotic Manipulation via Symmetry Reduction","authors":"Alexander A. Oliva;Maarten J. Jongeneel;Alessandro Saccon","doi":"10.1109/TRO.2025.3551197","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TRO.2025.3551197","url":null,"abstract":"Active suction cups are widely adopted in industrial and logistics automation. Despite that, validated dynamic models describing their 6D force/torque interaction with objects are rare. This work aims at filling this gap by showing that it is possible to employ a compact model for suction cups, providing good accuracy also for large deformations. Its potential use is for advanced manipulation, planning, and control. We model the interconnected object-suction cup system as a lumped 6D mass-spring-damper systems, employing a potential energy function on <inline-formula><tex-math>$text {SE}(3)$</tex-math></inline-formula>, parametrized by a <inline-formula><tex-math>$6times 6$</tex-math></inline-formula> stiffness matrix. By exploiting geometric symmetries of the suction cup, we reduce the parameter identification problem, from <inline-formula><tex-math>$6(6+1) / 2 = 21$</tex-math></inline-formula> to only <inline-formula><tex-math>$boldsymbol {5}$</tex-math></inline-formula> independent parameters, greatly simplifying the parameter identification procedure, that is otherwise ill-conditioned. Experimental validation is provided and data is shared openly to further stimulate research. As an indication of the achievable pose prediction in steady state, for an object of about <inline-formula><tex-math>$boldsymbol {1.75}$</tex-math></inline-formula> kg, we obtain a pose error in the order of <inline-formula><tex-math>$boldsymbol {5}$</tex-math></inline-formula> mm and <inline-formula><tex-math>$boldsymbol {3}$</tex-math></inline-formula> deg, with a gripper inclination of <inline-formula><tex-math>$boldsymbol {60}$</tex-math></inline-formula> deg.","PeriodicalId":50388,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Robotics","volume":"41 ","pages":"2285-2300"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143631372","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"RADIUM: Predicting and Repairing End-to-End Robot Failures Using Gradient-Accelerated Sampling","authors":"Charles Dawson;Anjali Parashar;Chuchu Fan","doi":"10.1109/TRO.2025.3551198","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TRO.2025.3551198","url":null,"abstract":"Before deploying autonomous systems in safety-critical applications, we must be able to understand and verify the safety of these systems. For cases where the risk or cost of real-world testing is prohibitive, we propose a simulation-based framework for 1) predicting ways in which an autonomous system is likely to fail and 2) automatically adjusting the system's design and control policy to preemptively mitigate those failures. Existing tools for failure prediction struggle to search over high-dimensional environmental parameters, cannot efficiently handle end-to-end testing for systems with vision in the loop, and provide little guidance on how to mitigate failures once they are discovered. We approach this problem through the lens of approximate Bayesian inference, using differentiable simulation and rendering for efficient failure case prediction and repair (and providing a gradient-free version of our algorithm for cases where a differentiable simulator is not available). We include a theoretical and empirical evaluation of the tradeoffs between gradient-based and gradient-free methods, applying our approach to a range of robotics and control problems, including optimizing search patterns for robot swarms, UAV formation control, and robust network control. Compared to optimization-based falsification methods, our method predicts a more diverse, representative set of failure modes, and we find that our use of differentiable simulation yields solutions that have up to 10x lower cost and requires up to 2x fewer iterations to converge relative to gradient-free techniques. In hardware experiments, we find that repairing control policies using our method leads to a 5x robustness improvement.","PeriodicalId":50388,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Robotics","volume":"41 ","pages":"2268-2284"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143631489","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Zhengyuan Xin;Shihao Zhong;Anping Wu;Zhiqiang Zheng;Qing Shi;Qiang Huang;Toshio Fukuda;Huaping Wang
{"title":"Dynamic Control of Multimodal Motion for Bistable Soft Millirobots in Complex Environments","authors":"Zhengyuan Xin;Shihao Zhong;Anping Wu;Zhiqiang Zheng;Qing Shi;Qiang Huang;Toshio Fukuda;Huaping Wang","doi":"10.1109/TRO.2025.3551541","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TRO.2025.3551541","url":null,"abstract":"Soft millirobots are highly promising for biomedical applications due to their reconfigurability and multifunctionality within physiological environments. However, the diverse and narrow biological cavity environments pose significant adaptability challenges for these millirobots. Here, we present a dual-morphology, thin-film millirobot equipped with a magnetic drive head and a functional tail to facilitate multimodal motion and targeted cell delivery. The millirobot can reversibly switch between two distinct morphologies in response to environmental stimuli through the deformation of its hydrogel body. Utilizing these dual morphologies, the millirobot can perform robust multimodal fundamental motions controlled by magnetic fields. We encapsulate fundamental motions with specific programmable magnetic field parameters into motion primitives, allowing easy invocation and adjustment of motion modes on demand. A knowledge graph is established to map terrain features to motion units, enabling the identification of optimal motion modes based on typical terrain characteristics. Experimental results indicate that the millirobot can effectively switch its morphology and movement modes to navigate various terrains, including narrow and curved channels as small as 1 mm, 0.8 mm high stairs with a 15° incline, and even the complex environment of a swine intestinal lumen. Its functional tail can carry immune cells to target and kill cancer cells. This robot can transport drugs and cells while navigating complex terrains through multimodal motion, paving the way for targeted medical tasks in intricate human environments in the future.","PeriodicalId":50388,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Robotics","volume":"41 ","pages":"2662-2676"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143631490","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"AiDT: Toward Radar-Based Joint Anti-Interference Detection and Tracking for Weak Extended Targets Under Zero-Trust Autonomous Perception Tasks","authors":"Zhenyuan Zhang;Yu Zhang;Darong Huang;Xin Fang;Mu Zhou;Ying Zhang","doi":"10.1109/TRO.2025.3567522","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TRO.2025.3567522","url":null,"abstract":"Extended object detection and tracking (EODT) is becoming a promising alternative for autonomous perception, which provides not only common motion states but also accurate spatial extent information, such as shape and size estimations. However, due to uncoordinated radar transmissions in zero-trust autonomous driving scenarios, radar-based EODT systems suffer from mutual radio frequency (RF) interference launched by attackers, leading to ghost targets and increased noise. On this account, a novel joint anti-interference detection and tracking system for weak extended targets is presented in this article. In contrast to pioneering works that treat object detection and tracking as two separate steps, the proposed method handles them jointly by integrating a continuous detection process into tracking, improving the detectability of weak targets. More specifically, to accommodate the time-varying number and extended size of radar reflections, an adaptive spatial distribution model representing the deformable extents is incorporated to capture the contour evolution over time. The key insight is that by accumulating the reflected power, all backscattered points are regarded as one entity to match the real target so that the intractable data association problem can be circumvented in the proposed method. Unlike the prominent random matrix model-based approaches that split motion and extent states into independent parts, this study explores the interdependencies between the states and updates them simultaneously. In addition, the proposed system has been deployed on a low-cost automotive radar platform. Experimental results confirm that the proposed approach can achieve accurate and resilient EODT against RF interference attacks, especially in occlusion, dynamic motion switching, and complex multiple extended target tracking scenarios.","PeriodicalId":50388,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Robotics","volume":"41 ","pages":"3368-3384"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143930891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kaidi Wang;Ganghua Lai;Yushu Yu;Jianrui Du;Jiali Sun;Bin Xu;Antonio Franchi;Fuchun Sun
{"title":"Versatile Tasks on Integrated Aerial Platforms Using Only Onboard Sensors: Control, Estimation, and Validation","authors":"Kaidi Wang;Ganghua Lai;Yushu Yu;Jianrui Du;Jiali Sun;Bin Xu;Antonio Franchi;Fuchun Sun","doi":"10.1109/TRO.2025.3568531","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TRO.2025.3568531","url":null,"abstract":"Connecting multiple aerial vehicles to a rigid central platform through passive spherical joints holds the potential to construct a fully actuated aerial platform. The integration of multiple vehicles enhances efficiency in tasks like mapping and object reconnaissance. This article proposes a control and state estimation framework for the integrated aerial platform (IAP), enabling it to perform versatile tasks like object reconnaissance and physical interactive tasks with only onboard sensors. In the framework, the 6-D motion control serves as the low-level controller, while the high-level controller comprises a 6-D admittance filter and a perception-aware attitude correction module. The 6-D admittance filter, serving as the interaction controller, is adaptable for aerial interaction tasks. The perception-aware attitude correction algorithm is carefully designed by adopting a geometric model predictive controller (MPC). This algorithm, incorporating both offline and online calculations, proves to be well-suited for the intricate dynamics of an IAP. A 6-D direct wrench controller is also developed for the IAP. Notably, both the interaction controller and the direct wrench controller operate without reliance on force/torque sensors. Instead, a wrench observer algorithm is devised, considering external disturbances. In addition, based on the kinematics constraints of the multiple aerials in the platform, a fusion algorithm for multiple visual-inertial odometry and kinematics constraints is developed, providing more accurate localization. A prototype of the IAP is constructed, and its capabilities are demonstrated through experiments including perception-aware object reconnaissance, aerial mapping, aerial peg-in-hole task, and 6-D contact wrench generation. All experiments are conducted exclusively with onboard sensors. These tasks exemplify the merits of the proposed IAP and validate the effectiveness of the proposed control framework and fusion algorithm.","PeriodicalId":50388,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Robotics","volume":"41 ","pages":"3518-3538"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143930890","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Informative Path Planning for Active Regression With Gaussian Processes via Sparse Optimization","authors":"Shamak Dutta;Nils Wilde;Stephen L. Smith","doi":"10.1109/TRO.2025.3548865","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TRO.2025.3548865","url":null,"abstract":"We study informative path planning for active regression in Gaussian Processes (GP). Here, a resource constrained robot team collects measurements of an unknown function, assumed to be a sample from a GP, with the goal of minimizing the trace of the <inline-formula><tex-math>$M$</tex-math></inline-formula>-weighted expected squared estimation error covariance (where <inline-formula><tex-math>$M$</tex-math></inline-formula> is a positive semidefinite matrix) resulting from the GP posterior mean. While greedy heuristics are a popular solution in the case of length constrained paths, it remains a challenge to compute <italic>optimal</i> solutions in the discrete setting subject to routing constraints. We show that this challenge is surprisingly easy to circumvent. Using the optimality of the posterior mean for a class of functions of the squared loss yields an exact formulation as a mixed integer program. We demonstrate that this approach finds optimal solutions in a variety of settings in seconds and when terminated early, it finds sub-optimal solutions of higher quality than existing heuristics.","PeriodicalId":50388,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Robotics","volume":"41 ","pages":"2184-2199"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143575367","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Design and Control of a Musculoskeletal Bionic Leg With Optimized and Sensorized Soft Artificial Muscles","authors":"Xuguang Dong;Yixin Wang;Jingyi Zhou;Xin An;Yinglei Zhu;Fugui Xie;Xin-Jun Liu;Huichan Zhao","doi":"10.1109/TRO.2025.3567801","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TRO.2025.3567801","url":null,"abstract":"The development of high-performance bionic legged robots can benefit from the continued advancements in various actuation methods, such as artificial muscles. This work presents a musculoskeletal bionic leg driven by fluidic elastomer actuators (FEAs), showcasing their potential as artificial muscles for legged robots. Our approach integrates three key innovations: First, we established a mechanics model using thin plate theory to optimize the bellows shell structure of the FEAs, achieving high force output while maintaining inherent compliance. Second, we developed a lightweight embedded optoelectronic sensing system that enables closed-loop control without significantly increasing mass. Third, we designed a two-joint leg in the sagittal plane that utilizes a bionic configuration incorporating both monoarticular and biarticular FEAs. The leg demonstrated robust performance across various tasks including extreme positional movements, load-bearing squats supporting up to 2.45 times its body weight, vertical jumping with 147 mm ground clearance, and stable walking. Notably, our embedded sensing system successfully detected ground contact states without additional foot sensors, enabling reliable gait control while minimizing complexity and weight. The experimental results validate both the mechanical capabilities of the optimized FEAs and their controllability through embedded sensing, laying a foundation for developing full legged robots with muscle-like actuation.","PeriodicalId":50388,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Robotics","volume":"41 ","pages":"3402-3422"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143920586","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Development of Bioinspired Five-DOF Origami for Robotic Spine Assistive Exoskeleton","authors":"Bing Chen;Xiang Ni;Lei Zhou;Bin Zi;Eric Li;Dan Zhang","doi":"10.1109/TRO.2025.3567530","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TRO.2025.3567530","url":null,"abstract":"Frequent and high-load manual material handling (MMH) tasks often cause back injuries to the workers, and back-support exoskeletons are developed for individuals with MMH tasks. However, these exoskeletons usually cannot adapt well to the movements of the wearer's spine. This article introduces a new bioinspired five degree of freedom (DOF) origami, and via mechanical design, a unique rigid-flexible coupled bioinspired origami mechanism is proposed. This origami mechanism is compact and lightweight, and it has stable kinematic behaviors. With the designed origami mechanisms, a novel active origami-based robotic spine assistive exoskeleton (OSAE) is developed to assist individuals with MMH tasks during the symmetric and asymmetric lifting. The OSAE is actuated by a cable-driven module through an underactuated spine module that consists of seven origami mechanisms. With the designed spine module, the OSAE can adapt well to the wearer's spine motions during MMH tasks. Modeling of the five-DOF origami is described, and an adaptive control strategy is proposed for the exoskeleton to adapt to different lifting methods and objects with different weights. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed OSAE. During the symmetric lifting of a 10-kg object, a reduction of 41.28% of the average muscle activity of the wearer's lumbar erector spinae muscle (LES) is observed, and reductions of 30.15% and 39.54% of the average muscle activities of the wearer's left and right LES are observed, respectively, during the asymmetric lifting of a 10-kg object.","PeriodicalId":50388,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Robotics","volume":"41 ","pages":"3317-3334"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143915267","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Enhao Zheng;Xiaodong Liu;Chenfeng Xu;Zhihao Zhou;Qining Wang
{"title":"Representation of Human arm Dynamic Intents With an Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT)-Driven Musculoskeletal Model for Human–Robot Interaction","authors":"Enhao Zheng;Xiaodong Liu;Chenfeng Xu;Zhihao Zhou;Qining Wang","doi":"10.1109/TRO.2025.3567547","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TRO.2025.3567547","url":null,"abstract":"Representing human arm dynamic intent is essential for effective human–robot interaction. Accurately and robustly decoding these intentions through mathematical modeling of neuromuscular processes poses significant challenges. This study introduces an electrical impedance tomography (EIT)-driven musculoskeletal model, which integrates an EIT sensing system with methods for muscle identification, parameter estimation, and musculoskeletal system modeling. Unlike existing muscle-signal techniques, EIT captures muscle activities from the anatomical cross-sectional plane, providing both activation dynamics and morphological features. We validated our method through multiDoF wrist kinematics estimation under varying contraction intensities, arm endpoint stiffness estimation, and robotic variable admittance control. Our approach achieves accuracy comparable to state-of-the-art methods while requiring fewer training samples and a more compact sensing system. The model incorporates physiological constraints, minimizing decoding errors, and ensuring interaction safety. This method enables reliable intent decoding with practical training demands. Future work will enhance the EIT system for complex tasks.","PeriodicalId":50388,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Robotics","volume":"41 ","pages":"3278-3296"},"PeriodicalIF":9.4,"publicationDate":"2025-03-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143915325","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}