Robot Manipulation

• A robotic manipulator demonstrates higher consistency than human in tasks that require precision and repeatability.  As a result, the automated robotic manipulators are widely adopted in fields such as factory and surgery.

• However, these manipulators are operated only in the controlled environments, following pre-programmed instructions. Current robots accompany re-programming or re-teaching when encountering unseen environments/objects. They are also limited in performing majority of human tasks, such as knot-tying, rope untying, cable harnesses, and part assemblies.

• Humans, in contrast, exhibit excellent flexibility in handling unseen objects under new environments. We are skilled to manipulate deformable objects on a daily basis. Our goal is to develop robotic technology capable of object manipulation with human-level agility, precision, and intelligence.

• To achieve these goals, we are currently focusing on the following issues:

-  Real-time visual servoing control for dynamic object manipulation

-  Robust object/robot pose estimation under occlusion

-  Automating knot-tying with 3D rope reconstruction

-  Optimized grasping for handover in bimanual assembly tasks

-  Automating precise assembly tasks in confined spaces

-  Efficient robot/hand-eye calibration method

-  Stable object manipulation based on visual and tactile features under occlusion

-  Design and control of wearable extendable robot arm