This paper describes a general passivity-based framework for the control of flexible joint robots. Recent results on torque, position, as well as impedance control of flexible joint robots are summarized, and the relations between the individual contributions are highlighted. It is shown that an inner torque feedback loop can be incorporated into a passivity-based analysis by interpreting torqu...

Anticipating the actions of others is key to coordinating joint activities. We propose the notion of anticipatory action and perception for for robots acting with humans. We describe four systems in which anticipation has been modeled for human-robot interaction; two in a teamwork setting, and two in a human-robot joint performance setting. In evaluating the effects of anticipatory agent activi...

This paper presents a computationally tractable, resolution-complete algorithm for generating dynamically feasible trajectories for N interchangeable (identical) aerial robots navigating through cluttered known environments to M goal states. This is achieved by assigning the robots to goal states while concurrently planning the trajectories for all robots. The algorithm minimizes the maximum co...

This paper proposes a new notation for kinematic structures which allows a unified description of serial, parallel, and hybrid robots or articulated machine tools. During the past decades, the well-known Denavit-Hartenberg parameters have been used widely to describe serial kinematics of robots in science and industry. Till now, such a common notation for parallel manipulators has not yet been ...

The regulation of motor variable positions in robots with elastic elements has been solved using PD linear controllers in the absence of gravity and with the addition of a model-based feedforward term when gravity is present. When the mass of the links is not known, an iterative learning scheme can be derived to obtain the same result for both joint elasticity and link flexibility. An extension...

With the services that autonomous robots are to provide becoming more demanding, the states that the robots have to estimate become more complex. In this article, we develop and analyze a probabilistic, vision-based state estimation method for individual, autonomous robots. This method enables a team of mobile robots to estimate their joint positions in a known environment and track the positio...

In this thesis, methods of motion planning for modular robots under failure is investigated. Methods based on Central Pattern Generator (CPG) are used to generate signals for locomotion control of modules. The Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is bio-inspired method which is used for optimization of CPG-based locomotion. For purpose of the motion planning, the Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (RRT...

The paper presents a new generation of torque-controlled lightweight robots (LWR) developed at the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics of the German Aerospace Center. In order to act in unstructured environments and interact with humans, the robots have design features and control/software functionalities which distinguish them from classical robots, such as: load-to-weight ratio of 1:1, tor...

Robots are becoming a part of our daily lives, and humans and robots are beginning to work together as teams to achieve common goals. In a human-robot interaction (HRI) scenario, it is important to assign roles to both the human and the robot, as these role assignments may affect the fluidity and the effectiveness of the interaction. In this paper, we discuss different role distribution models ...

This paper addresses the dynamic path planning for two mobile robots in unknownenvironment with obstacle avoidance and moving target tracking. These robots must form atriangle with moving target. The algorithm is composed of two parts. The first part of thealgorithm used for formation planning of the robots and a moving target. It generates thedesired position for the robots for the next step. ...