No Arabic abstract
It is challenging to control a soft robot, where reinforcement learning methods have been applied with promising results. However, due to the poor sample efficiency, reinforcement learning methods require a large collection of training data, which limits their applications. In this paper, we propose a Q-learning controller for a physical soft robot, in which pre-trained models using data from a rough simulator are applied to improve the performance of the controller. We implement the method on our soft robot, i.e., Honeycomb Pneumatic Network (HPN) arm. The experiments show that the usage of pre-trained models can not only reduce the amount of the real-world training data, but also greatly improve its accuracy and convergence rate.
This paper presents an offset-free model predictive controller for fast and accurate control of a spherical soft robotic arm. In this control scheme, a linear model is combined with an online disturbance estimation technique to systematically compensate model deviations. Dynamic effects such as material relaxation resulting from the use of soft materials can be addressed to achieve offset-free tracking. The tracking error can be reduced by 35% when compared to a standard model predictive controller without a disturbance compensation scheme. The improved tracking performance enables the realization of a ball catching application, where the spherical soft robotic arm can catch a ball thrown by a human.
Soft robots promise improved safety and capability over rigid robots when deployed in complex, delicate, and dynamic environments. However, the infinite degrees of freedom and highly nonlinear dynamics of these systems severely complicate their modeling and control. As a step toward addressing this open challenge, we apply the data-driven, Hankel Dynamic Mode Decomposition (HDMD) with time delay observables to the model identification of a highly inertial, helical soft robotic arm with a high number of underactuated degrees of freedom. The resulting model is linear and hence amenable to control via a Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR). Using our test bed device, a dynamic, lightweight pneumatic fabric arm with an inertial mass at the tip, we show that the combination of HDMD and LQR allows us to command our robot to achieve arbitrary poses using only open loop control. We further show that Koopman spectral analysis gives us a dimensionally reduced basis of modes which decreases computational complexity without sacrificing predictive power.
Standardized evaluation measures have aided in the progress of machine learning approaches in disciplines such as computer vision and machine translation. In this paper, we make the case that robotic learning would also benefit from benchmarking, and present the REPLAB platform for benchmarking vision-based manipulation tasks. REPLAB is a reproducible and self-contained hardware stack (robot arm, camera, and workspace) that costs about 2000 USD, occupies a cuboid of size 70x40x60 cm, and permits full assembly within a few hours. Through this low-cost, compact design, REPLAB aims to drive wide participation by lowering the barrier to entry into robotics and to enable easy scaling to many robots. We envision REPLAB as a framework for reproducible research across manipulation tasks, and as a step in this direction, we define a template for a grasping benchmark consisting of a task definition, evaluation protocol, performance measures, and a dataset of 92k grasp attempts. We implement, evaluate, and analyze several previously proposed grasping approaches to establish baselines for this benchmark. Finally, we also implement and evaluate a deep reinforcement learning approach for 3D reaching tasks on our REPLAB platform. Project page with assembly instructions, code, and videos: https://goo.gl/5F9dP4.
The compliance of soft robotic arms renders the development of accurate kinematic & dynamical models especially challenging. The most widely used model in soft robotic kinematics assumes Piecewise Constant Curvature (PCC). However, PCC fails to effectively handle external forces, or even the influence of gravity, since the robot does not deform with a constant curvature under these conditions. In this paper, we establish three-dimensional (3D) modeling of a multi-segment soft robotic arm under the less restrictive assumption that each segment of the arm is deformed on a plane without twisting. We devise a kinematic and dynamical model for the soft arm by deriving equivalence to a serial universal joint robot. Numerous experiments on the real robot platform along with simulations attest to the modeling accuracy of our approach in 3D motion with load. The maximum position/rotation error of the proposed model is verified 6.7x/4.6x lower than the PCC model considering gravity and external forces.
A technological revolution is occurring in the field of robotics with the data-driven deep learning technology. However, building datasets for each local robot is laborious. Meanwhile, data islands between local robots make data unable to be utilized collaboratively. To address this issue, the work presents Peer-Assisted Robotic Learning (PARL) in robotics, which is inspired by the peer-assisted learning in cognitive psychology and pedagogy. PARL implements data collaboration with the framework of cloud robotic systems. Both data and models are shared by robots to the cloud after semantic computing and training locally. The cloud converges the data and performs augmentation, integration, and transferring. Finally, fine tune this larger shared dataset in the cloud to local robots. Furthermore, we propose the DAT Network (Data Augmentation and Transferring Network) to implement the data processing in PARL. DAT Network can realize the augmentation of data from multi-local robots. We conduct experiments on a simplified self-driving task for robots (cars). DAT Network has a significant improvement in the augmentation in self-driving scenarios. Along with this, the self-driving experimental results also demonstrate that PARL is capable of improving learning effects with data collaboration of local robots.