Learning Context-Aware Neural ODE Dynamics for Adaptive Robotic Control
It addresses the need for adaptive dynamics models in model-based control for robots operating in uncertain environments, but the results are qualitative and lack concrete performance numbers.
This paper proposes a context-aware neural ODE dynamics model that adapts to environmental changes in robotic control, validated on a simulated quadrotor and real-world Sphero BOLT and Fanuc manipulator, showing effective adaptation to varying conditions.
Robotic systems deployed in uncertain and dynamically changing environments often face variations in contact conditions, aerodynamic effects, and external disturbances that challenge reliable control. To remain effective under model-based control, these systems require dynamics models that can adapt to such changes, especially when direct access to complete environmental information is limited. To enable adaptability and facilitate integration with model predictive control, we propose a context-aware dynamics model based on neural ordinary differential equations, which infers environmental factors from state-action histories using a two-phase training procedure. We validate the approach across diverse robotic platforms, including a quadrotor in simulation, as well as a Sphero BOLT robot and a Fanuc manipulator in real-world experiments. The results demonstrate that our method effectively adapts to temporally and spatially varying environmental changes across different tasks. Videos are available at https://youtu.be/PY0sNyF2rqE , and the source code is available at https://github.com/syyu410-yu/context-aware-neural-ode-control.git .