Maximilian Mühlbauer

Maximilian Mühlbauer, Bernhard Weber, Sylvain Calinon et al.

Probabilistic Virtual Fixtures (VFs) enable the adaptive selection of the most suitable haptic feedback for each phase of a task, based on learned or perceived uncertainty. While keeping the human in the loop remains essential, for instance, to ensure high precision, partial automation of certain task phases is critical for productivity. We present a unified framework for probabilistic VFs that seamlessly switches between manual fixtures, semi-automated fixtures (with the human handling precise tasks), and full autonomy. We introduce a novel probabilistic Dynamical System-based VF for coarse guidance, enabling the robot to autonomously complete certain task phases while keeping the human operator in the loop. For tasks requiring precise guidance, we extend probabilistic position-based trajectory fixtures with automation, allowing for seamless human interaction, geometry-awareness and optimal impedance gains. For manual tasks requiring very precise guidance, we also extend visual servoing fixtures with the same geometry-awareness and impedance behavior. We validate our approach on different robots, including an evaluation with expert users, showcasing operation modes, the ease of programming fixtures and lower interaction forces and favorable usability compared to a baseline.

Markus Knauer, Edoardo Fiorini, Maximilian Mühlbauer et al.

Industrial robot applications require increasingly flexible systems that non-expert users can easily adapt for varying tasks and environments. However, different adaptations benefit from different interaction modalities. We present an interactive framework that enables robot skill adaptation through three complementary modalities: kinesthetic touch for precise spatial corrections, natural language for high-level semantic modifications, and a graphical web interface for visualizing geometric relations and trajectories, inspecting and adjusting parameters, and editing via-points by drag-and-drop. The framework integrates five components: energy-based human-intention detection, a tool-based LLM architecture (where the LLM selects and parameterizes predefined functions rather than generating code) for safe natural language adaptation, Kernelized Movement Primitives (KMPs) for motion encoding, probabilistic Virtual Fixtures for guided demonstration recording, and ergodic control for surface finishing. We demonstrate that this tool-based LLM architecture generalizes skill adaptation from KMPs to ergodic control, enabling voice-commanded surface finishing. Validation on a 7-DoF torque-controlled robot at the Automatica 2025 trade fair demonstrates the practical applicability of our approach in industrial settings.

Nathaniel Hanson, Philip Manke, Simon Birkholz et al.

Machine learning is an important tool for analyzing high-dimension hyperspectral data; however, existing software solutions are either closed-source or inextensible research products. In this paper, we present cuvis.ai, an open-source and low-code software ecosystem for data acquisition, preprocessing, and model training. The package is written in Python and provides wrappers around common machine learning libraries, allowing both classical and deep learning models to be trained on hyperspectral data. The codebase abstracts processing interconnections and data dependencies between operations to minimize code complexity for users. This software package instantiates nodes in a directed acyclic graph to handle all stages of a machine learning ecosystem, from data acquisition, including live or static data sources, to final class assignment or property prediction. User-created models contain convenient serialization methods to ensure portability and increase sharing within the research community. All code and data are available online: https://github.com/cubert-hyperspectral/cuvis.ai