Model-Based Iterative Learning Control Applied to an Industrial Robot with Elasticity

In this paper model-based Iterative Learning Control (ILC) is applied to improve the tracking accuracy of an industrial robot with elasticity. The ILC algorithm iteratively updates the reference trajectory for the robot such that the predicted tracking error in the next iteration is minimised. The tracking error is predicted by a model of the closed-loop dynamics of the robot. The model includes the servo resonance frequency, the first resonance frequency caused by elasticity in the mechanism and the variation of both frequencies along the trajectory. Experimental results show that the tracking error of the robot can be reduced, even at frequencies beyond the first elastic resonance frequency

Learning a Structured Neural Network Policy for a Hopping Task

In this work we present a method for learning a reactive policy for a simple dynamic locomotion task involving hard impact and switching contacts where we assume the contact location and contact timing to be unknown. To learn such a policy, we use optimal control to optimize a local controller for a fixed environment and contacts. We learn the contact-rich dynamics for our underactuated systems along these trajectories in a sample efficient manner. We use the optimized policies to learn the reactive policy in form of a neural network. Using a new neural network architecture, we are able to preserve more information from the local policy and make its output interpretable in the sense that its output in terms of desired trajectories, feedforward commands and gains can be interpreted. Extensive simulations demonstrate the robustness of the approach to changing environments, outperforming a model-free gradient policy based methods on the same tasks in simulation. Finally, we show that the learned policy can be robustly transferred on a real robot.Comment: IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters 201

Information-Theoretic Stochastic Optimal Control via Incremental Sampling-based Algorithms

This paper considers optimal control of dynamical systems which are represented by nonlinear stochastic differential equations. It is well-known that the optimal control policy for this problem can be obtained as a function of a value function that satisfies a nonlinear partial differential equation, namely, the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation. This nonlinear PDE must be solved backwards in time, and this computation is intractable for large scale systems. Under certain assumptions, and after applying a logarithmic transformation, an alternative characterization of the optimal policy can be given in terms of a path integral. Path Integral (PI) based control methods have recently been shown to provide elegant solutions to a broad class of stochastic optimal control problems. One of the implementation challenges with this formalism is the computation of the expectation of a cost functional over the trajectories of the unforced dynamics. Computing such expectation over trajectories that are sampled uniformly may induce numerical instabilities due to the exponentiation of the cost. Therefore, sampling of low-cost trajectories is essential for the practical implementation of PI-based methods. In this paper, we use incremental sampling-based algorithms to sample useful trajectories from the unforced system dynamics, and make a novel connection between Rapidly-exploring Random Trees (RRTs) and information-theoretic stochastic optimal control. We show the results from the numerical implementation of the proposed approach to several examples.Comment: 18 page

Goal Set Inverse Optimal Control and Iterative Re-planning for Predicting Human Reaching Motions in Shared Workspaces

To enable safe and efficient human-robot collaboration in shared workspaces it is important for the robot to predict how a human will move when performing a task. While predicting human motion for tasks not known a priori is very challenging, we argue that single-arm reaching motions for known tasks in collaborative settings (which are especially relevant for manufacturing) are indeed predictable. Two hypotheses underlie our approach for predicting such motions: First, that the trajectory the human performs is optimal with respect to an unknown cost function, and second, that human adaptation to their partner's motion can be captured well through iterative re-planning with the above cost function. The key to our approach is thus to learn a cost function which "explains" the motion of the human. To do this, we gather example trajectories from pairs of participants performing a collaborative assembly task using motion capture. We then use Inverse Optimal Control to learn a cost function from these trajectories. Finally, we predict reaching motions from the human's current configuration to a task-space goal region by iteratively re-planning a trajectory using the learned cost function. Our planning algorithm is based on the trajectory optimizer STOMP, it plans for a 23 DoF human kinematic model and accounts for the presence of a moving collaborator and obstacles in the environment. Our results suggest that in most cases, our method outperforms baseline methods when predicting motions. We also show that our method outperforms baselines for predicting human motion when a human and a robot share the workspace.Comment: 12 pages, Accepted for publication IEEE Transaction on Robotics 201