Robotics

Research lines:

Robot Modeling, Planning, and Control
Visual-based Control
Sensor-based Planning and Exploration
Navigation of Mobile Robots
Networked Robots
Physical Human-Robot Interaction

Members:
Alessandro De Luca (leader), Luca Iocchi, Leonardo Lanari, Giuseppe Oriolo, Marilena Vendittelli.

PhD Students:
Daniele Calisi, Antonio Franchi, Fabrizio Flacco, Paolo Stegagno.

Post Docs:
Luigi Freda, Luca Marchetti, Pietro Peliti, Chiara Toglia.

The Robotics group at DIS was established in the late '80s, together with its experimental Laboratory, and is committed to the development and experimental validation of planning and control techniques for manipulators and mobile robots.

The main research results were obtained on the following subjects: nonlinear control of robots with flexibility concentrated at the joints or distributed along the links; iterative learning of repetitive motion; hybrid force/velocity control of manipulators interacting with the environment; optimization schemes in kinematically redundant robots; motion planning, set-point regulation, and trajectory tracking for wheeled mobile robots and other nonholonomic mechanical systems; stabilization of underactuated robots; robot actuator fault detection and isolation; safe control of physical human-robot interaction; control of locomotion platforms for VR immersion; image-based visual servoing; sensor-based navigation and exploration in unknown environments; randomized motion planning for high-dimensional systems in the presence of obstacles; multi-robot coordination and mutual localization.

The Laboratory is currently equipped with a 6R industrial robot (KUKA), an underactuated arm (Pendubot), a medium-size (Magellan) and a team of 5 small (Khepera-III) mobile robots, and 2 legged robots (Aibo), all endowed with a variety of ultrasonic and laser range finders, and (stereo)vision systems. In the past, we designed and built a two-link flexible manipulator (FlexArm) and a differentially-driven wheeled mobile robot (SuperMARIO).

In addition to the further development of on-going research projects, our future activities will also include the control of robots with variable impedance actuation, trajectory tracking and visual servoing for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), using a quadrotor as experimental set up, control-based motion planning for mobile manipulators, motion planning and control of humanoid robots, and sensory supervision of human-robot interaction. We shall also pursue some more applied research, including the navigation and coordination of a large team of mobile robots for luggage transport in airports and an autonomous GPS-guided line tracer for marking roads.

Projects:

CyberWalk -- The CyberCarpet - Enabling Omni-directional Walking in Virtual Worlds
April 1, 2005 - May 31, 2008    -    EU STREP FP6-511092

PHRIENDS -- Physical Human-Robot Interaction: Dependability and Safety
October 1, 2006 - September 30, 2009    -    EU STREP FP6-045359

SICURA -- Sicurezza per l'Interazione nel Contatto Robot-Ambiente
(Safe Physical Interaction between Robots and Humans)
September 23, 2008 - September 22, 2010    -    MIUR PRIN 2007