57.3ROJun 4
Ensuring Interaction Safety in Multitask Exoskeleton Control: A Simulation-Trained Variable Impedance FrameworkMuyuan Ma, Houcheng Li, Haotian Zhai et al.
Wearable exoskeletons can augment human phys ical capabilities during complex activities. However, ensuring adaptation across diverse tasks while guaranteeing interaction safety remains a critical challenge. To address this, a simulation trained variable impedance control approach with stability guarantees is proposed. First, a simulation-based human exoskeleton motion data generation pipeline is established, utilizing Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) to synthesize human muscle activations while the exoskeleton provides direct compensation for human biological joint torques. Subsequently, the generated dataset is used to train a dual modality policy that fuses semantic instructions with proprioceptive history, enabling the prediction of reference trajectories and variable impedance gains for nine different motion tasks. To guarantee safety, the network outputs are constrained by a stability criterion derived from Lyapunov stability theory, which bounds stiffness variations to ensure the asymptotic stability of the coupled system. Experimental results indicate that the proposed framework reduces metabolic cost in real-world scenarios com pared with standard baseline methods. These findings suggest the feasibility of the proposed framework for safe, multitask exoskeleton control.
ROAug 8, 2024
Enhanced Prediction of Multi-Agent Trajectories via Control Inference and State-Space DynamicsYu Zhang, Yongxiang Zou, Haoyu Zhang et al.
In the field of autonomous systems, accurately predicting the trajectories of nearby vehicles and pedestrians is crucial for ensuring both safety and operational efficiency. This paper introduces a novel methodology for trajectory forecasting based on state-space dynamic system modeling, which endows agents with models that have tangible physical implications. To enhance the precision of state estimations within the dynamic system, the paper also presents a novel modeling technique for control variables. This technique utilizes a newly introduced model, termed "Mixed Mamba," to derive initial control states, thereby improving the predictive accuracy of these variables. Moverover, the proposed approach ingeniously integrates graph neural networks with state-space models, effectively capturing the complexities of multi-agent interactions. This combination provides a robust and scalable framework for forecasting multi-agent trajectories across a range of scenarios. Comprehensive evaluations demonstrate that this model outperforms several established benchmarks across various metrics and datasets, highlighting its significant potential to advance trajectory forecasting in autonomous systems.
59.4ROMay 6
From Reach to Insert: Tactile-Augmented Precision Assembly under Sub-Millimeter TolerancesXinpan Meng, Siyao Huang, JingPu Yang et al.
High-precision assembly frequently involves tight-tolerance insertions, where even slight pose errors can cause jamming or excessive interaction forces, making robust and safe insertion policies difficult to obtain. This paper proposes a tactile-augmented two-stage method that combines Imitation Learning (IL) and Reinforcement Learning (RL) for precision insertion tasks. In the first stage, IL learns a reaching policy with position generalization that grasps the peg and brings it to the vicinity of the target region. In the second stage, RL executes the insertion and enables recovery from failures during contact-rich interactions. To better exploit tactile feedback, we introduce tactile group sampling to increase coverage of critical contact segments during training, and design a tactile critic to more accurately evaluate policy values, improving insertion performance while maintaining low contact forces. We conduct systematic experiments across five hole geometries and three clearance settings. Results show that our method substantially improves insertion performance across all settings; under the most challenging 0.05\,mm clearance, it achieves a 67\% success rate while keeping contact forces low, reducing the maximum interaction force by 60\% and torque by 44\%, thereby validating both effectiveness and safety for precision assembly.