Systems based on the Robot Operating System (ROS) are easy to extend with new on-line algorithms and devices. However, there is relatively little support for coordinating a large number of heterogeneous sub-systems. In this paper we propose an architecture to model and control collaborative and intelligent automation systems in a hierarchical fashion.
Chalmers University of Technology（查尔姆斯理工大学）；Volvo Group Trucks Operations（沃尔沃集团卡车运营公司）
Collaborative robots are becoming part of intelligent automation systems in modern industry. Development and control of such systems differs from traditional automation methods and consequently leads to new challenges. Thankfully, Robot Operating System (ROS) provides a communication platform and a vast variety of tools and utilities that can aid that development. However, it is hard to use ROS in large-scale automation systems due to communication issues in a distributed setup, hence the development of ROS2. In this paper, a ROS2 based communication architecture is presented together with an …
Objective: The status of human-robot collaboration for assembly applications is reviewed and key current challenges for the research community and practitioners are presented. Background: As the pandemic of COVID-19 started to surface the manufacturers went under pressure to address demand challenges. Social distancing measures made fewer people available to work. In such situations, robots were pointed at to support humans to address a shortage in supply. An important activity where humans are needed in a manufacturing value chain is assembly. HRC assembly systems are supposed to safeguard co…
Osaka University（大阪大学）；National Inst. of AIST（日本产业技术综合研究所）
This paper develops a planner that plans the action sequences and motion for a dual-arm robot to lift up and flip heavy plates using crane pulley blocks. The problem is motivated by the low payload of modern collaborative robots. Instead of directly manipulating heavy plates that collaborative robots cannot afford, the paper develops a planner for collaborative robots to operate crane pulley blocks. The planner assumes a target plate is pre-attached to the crane hook. It optimizes dual-arm action sequences and plans the robot's dual-arm motion that pulls the rope of the crane pulley blocks to …
In this paper we present a motion planner for LIMMS, a modular multi-agent, multi-modal package delivery platform. A single LIMMS unit is a robot that can operate as an arm or leg depending on how and what it is attached to, e.g., a manipulator when it is anchored to walls within a delivery vehicle or a quadruped robot when 4 are attached to a box. Coordinating amongst multiple LIMMS, when each one can take on vastly different roles, can quickly become complex. For such a planning problem we first compose the necessary logic and constraints. The formulation is then solved for skill exploration…
Osaka University（大阪大学）；University of California, Santa Cruz（加州大学圣克鲁兹分校）
This paper develops a robotic manipulation planner for human-robot collaborative assembly. Unlike previous methods which study an independent and fully AI-equipped autonomous system, this paper explores the subtask distribution between a robot and a human and studies a human-in-the-loop robotic system for collaborative assembly. The system distributes the subtasks of an assembly to robots and humans by exploiting their advantages and avoiding their disadvantages. The robot in the system will work on pick-and-place tasks and provide workpieces to humans. The human collaborator will work on fine…
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill（北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校）；Technion - Israel Institute of Technology（以色列理工学院）
Medical steerable needles can move along 3D curvilinear trajectories to avoid anatomical obstacles and reach clinically significant targets inside the human body. Automating steerable needle procedures can enable physicians and patients to harness the full potential of steerable needles by maximally leveraging their steerability to safely and accurately reach targets for medical procedures such as biopsies and localized therapy delivery for cancer. For the automation of medical procedures to be clinically accepted, it is critical from a patient care, safety, and regulatory perspective to certi…
An unsolved challenge in cooking automation is designing for shared kitchen workspaces. In particular, robots struggle with dexterity in the unstructured and dynamic kitchen environment. We propose that human-machine collaboration can be achieved without robotic manipulation. We describe a novel system design using computer vision to inform intelligent cooking interventions. This human-centered approach does not require actuators and promotes dynamic, natural collaboration. We show that automation that assists user-led actions can offer meaningful cooking assistance and can generate the image …
Edge Accelerated Robot Navigation With Collaborative Motion Planning
University of Macau（澳门大学）；The University of Hong Kong（香港大学）；Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院深圳先进技术研究院）；Zhejiang University（浙江大学）；Weizmann Institute of Science（魏茨曼科学研究所）
Planning motions for two robot arms to move an object collaboratively is a difficult problem, mainly because of the closed-chain constraint, which arises whenever two robot hands simultaneously grasp a single rigid object. In this paper, we propose a manipulation planning algorithm to bring an object from an initial stable placement (position and orientation of the object on the support surface) towards a goal stable placement. The key specificity of our algorithm is that it is certified-complete: for a given object and a given environment, we provide a certificate that the algorithm will find…
University of Toronto（多伦多大学）；Vector Institute（矢量研究所）；University of Waterloo（滑铁卢大学）；Nvidia（英伟达）
Chemists need to perform many laborious and time-consuming experiments in the lab to discover and understand the properties of new materials. To support and accelerate this process, we propose a robot framework for manipulation that autonomously performs chemistry experiments. Our framework receives high-level abstract descriptions of chemistry experiments, perceives the lab workspace, and autonomously plans multi-step actions and motions. The robot interacts with a wide range of lab equipment and executes the generated plans. A key component of our method is constrained task and motion planni…
This paper presents a system integration approach for a 6-DoF (Degree of Freedom) collaborative robot to operate a pipette for liquid dispensing. Its technical development is threefold. First, we designed an end-effector for holding and triggering manual pipettes. Second, we took advantage of a collaborative robot to recognize labware poses and planned robotic motion based on the recognized poses. Third, we developed vision-based classifiers to predict and correct positioning errors and thus precisely attached pipettes to disposable tips. Through experiments and analysis, we confirmed that the…
College of Electronics and Information Engineering, Tongji University（同济大学电子与信息工程学院）；School of Cyber Science and Engineering, Southeast University（东南大学网络空间安全学院）；School of Automation, Southeast University（东南大学自动化学院）
In this paper, a novel hybrid multi-robot motion planner that can be applied under non-communication and local observable conditions is presented. The planner is model-free and can realize the end-to-end mapping of multi-robot state and observation information to final smooth and continuous trajectories. The planner is a front-end and back-end separated architecture. The design of the front-end collaborative waypoints searching module is based on the multi-agent soft actor-critic algorithm under the centralized training with decentralized execution diagram. The design of the back-end trajector…
Seoul National University（首尔大学）；Automation and Systems Research Institute（自动化与系统研究院）
Automation of excavation tasks requires real-time trajectory planning satisfying various constraints. To guarantee both constraint feasibility and real-time trajectory re-plannability, we present an integrated framework for real-time optimization-based trajectory planning of a hydraulic excavator. The proposed framework is composed of two main modules: a global planner and a real-time local planner. The global planner computes the entire global trajectory considering excavation volume and energy minimization while the local counterpart tracks the global trajectory in a receding horizon manner,…
For collaborative robots to become useful, end users who are not robotics experts must be able to instruct them to perform a variety of tasks. With this goal in mind, we developed a system for end-user creation of robust task plans with a broad range of capabilities. CoSTAR: the Collaborative System for Task Automation and Recognition is our winning entry in the 2016 KUKA Innovation Award competition at the Hannover Messe trade show, which this year focused on Flexible Manufacturing. CoSTAR is unique in how it creates natural abstractions that use perception to represent the world in a way use…
Retention of residual skills for persons who partially lose their cognitive or physical ability is of utmost importance. Research is focused on developing systems that provide need-based assistance for retention of such residual skills. This paper describes a novel cognitive collaborative control architecture C3A, designed to address the challenges of developing need- based assistance for wheelchair navigation. Organization of C3A is detailed and results from simulation of the proposed architecture is presented. For simulation of our proposed architecture, we have used ROS (Robot Operating Sys…
Efficient and robust task planning for a human-robot collaboration (HRC) system remains challenging. The human-aware task planner needs to assign jobs to both robots and human workers so that they can work collaboratively to achieve better time efficiency. However, the complexity of the tasks and the stochastic nature of the human collaborators bring challenges to such task planning. To reduce the complexity of the planning problem, we utilize the hierarchical task model, which explicitly captures the sequential and parallel relationships of the task. We model human movements with the sigma-lo…
This paper presents the framework for a novel Unified Socially-Aware Navigation (USAN) architecture and explains its need in Socially Assistive Robotics (SAR) applications. Our approach emphasizes interpersonal distance and how spatial communication can be used to build a unified planner for a human-robot collaborative environment. Socially-Aware Navigation (SAN) is vital for helping humans to feel comfortable and safe around robots; HRI studies have shown the importance of SAN transcends safety and comfort. SAN plays a crucial role in perceived intelligence, sociability and social capacity of…
Reactive and Safety-Aware Path Replanning for Collaborative Applications
Institute of Intelligent Industrial Technologies and Systems, National Research Council of Italy（意大利国家研究理事会智能工业技术与系统研究所）；Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria, Politecnico di Milano（米兰理工学院电子、信息与生物工程系）；Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI), Technical University Munich（慕尼黑技术大学机器人与智能机器研究所）；Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, UAE（阿布扎克马斯达尔城人工智能大学）；Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica e Industriale, University of Brescia（布雷西亚大学机械与工业工程系）
RoCo Challenge at AAAI 2026: Benchmarking Robotic Collaborative Manipulation for Assembly Towards Industrial Automation
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore（南洋理工大学，新加坡）；Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, China（北京邮电大学，北京，中国）；Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA（卡内基梅隆大学，匹兹堡，美国）；Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore（科技研究局（A*STAR），新加坡）
In the near future, collaborative robots (cobots) are expected to play a vital role in the manufacturing and automation sectors. It is predicted that workers will work side by side in collaboration with cobots to surpass fully automated factories. In this regard, physical human-robot interaction (pHRI) aims to develop natural communication between the partners to bring speed, flexibility, and ergonomics to the execution of complex manufacturing tasks. One challenge in pHRI is to design an optimal interaction controller to balance the limitations introduced by the contradicting nature of transp…
Balanced Collaborative Exploration via Distributed Topological Graph Voronoi Partition
College of Electrical Engineering, Zhejiang University（浙江大学电气工程学院）；Jinhua Institute of Zhejiang University（浙江大学金华研究院）；National Key Laboratory of Human-Machine Hybrid Augmented Intelligence, Xi’an Jiaotong University（西安交通大学人机混合增强智能国家级重点实验室）；National Key Laboratory of Industrial Control Technology, Zhejiang University（浙江大学工业控制技术国家级重点实验室）
Virginia Tech（弗吉尼亚理工大学）；California Institute of Technology（加州理工学院）
The aim of this work is to define a planner that enables robust legged locomotion for complex multi-agent systems consisting of several holonomically constrained quadrupeds. To this end, we employ a methodology based on behavioral systems theory to model the sophisticated and high-dimensional structure induced by the holonomic constraints. The resulting model is then used in tandem with distributed control techniques such that the computational burden is shared across agents while the coupling between agents is preserved. Finally, this distributed model is framed in the context of a predictive…
University of Bristol（布里斯托大学）；University of the West of England（西英格兰大学）
Industries such as flexible manufacturing and home care will be transformed by the presence of robotic assistants. Assurance of safety and functional soundness for these robotic systems will require rigorous verification and validation. We propose testing in simulation using Coverage-Driven Verification (CDV) to guide the testing process in an automatic and systematic way. We use a two-tiered test generation approach, where abstract test sequences are computed first and then concretized (e.g., data and variables are instantiated), to reduce the complexity of the test generation problem. To dem…
École Polytechnique de Montréal（蒙特利尔高等理工学院）；University of Tübingen（图宾根大学）
Localization and tracking are two very active areas of research for robotics, automation, and the Internet-of-Things. Accurate tracking for a large number of devices usually requires deployment of substantial infrastructure (infrared tracking systems, cameras, wireless antennas, etc.), which is not ideal for inaccessible or protected environments. This paper stems from the challenge posed such environments: cover a large number of units spread over a large number of small rooms, with minimal required localization infrastructure. The idea is to accurately track the position of handheld devices …
Interactive Motion Planning for Human-Robot Collaboration Based on Human-Centric Configuration Space Ergonomic Field
Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, T-Stone Robotics Institute, The Chinese University of Hong Kong（机械与自动化工程系，T-Stone机器人研究所，香港中文大学）；Idiap Research Institute（Idiap研究所）；Department of Advanced Robotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia（先进机器人系，意大利Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia）
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia（意大利技术研究院）；Politecnico di Milano（米兰理工大学）
Human-robot collaborative assembly systems enhance the efficiency and productivity of the workplace but may increase the workers' cognitive demand. This paper proposes an online and quantitative framework to assess the cognitive workload induced by the interaction with a co-worker, either a human operator or an industrial collaborative robot with different control strategies. The approach monitors the operator's attention distribution and upper-body kinematics benefiting from the input images of a low-cost stereo camera and cutting-edge artificial intelligence algorithms (i.e. head pose estima…
This paper presents a combined task and motion planner for a robot arm to carry out 3D metal wire curving tasks by collaborating with a bending machine. We assume a collaborative robot that is safe to work in a human environment but has a weak payload to bend objects with large stiffness, and developed a combined planner for the robot to use a bending machine. Our method converts a 3D curve to a bending set and generates the feasible bending sequence, machine usage, robotic grasp poses, and pick-and-place arm motion considering the combined task and motion level constraints. Compared with prev…
University of North Carolina at Charlotte（北卡罗来纳大学夏洛特分校）；University of Michigan（密歇根大学）
Communication and cooperation among team members can be enhanced significantly with physical interaction. Successful collaboration requires the integration of the individual partners' intentions into a shared action plan, which may involve a continuous negotiation of intentions and roles. This paper presents an adaptive haptic shared control framework wherein a human driver and an automation system are physically connected through a motorized steering wheel. By virtue of haptic feedback, the driver and automation system can monitor each other actions and can still intuitively express their con…
