Deep learning for control using augmented Hessian-free optimization
Traditionally, deep learning is applied to feed-forward tasks, like classification, where the output of the network doesn’t affect the input to the network. It is a decidedly harder problem when the...
View ArticleUsing VREP for simulation of force-controlled models
I’ve been playing around a bit with different simulators, and one that we’re a big fan of in the lab is VREP. It’s free for academics and you can talk to them about licences if you’re looking for...
View ArticleDynamic movement primitives part 4: Avoiding obstacles – update
Edit: Previously I posted this blog post on incorporating obstacle avoidance, but after a recent comment on the code I started going through it again and found a whole bunch of issues. Enough so that...
View ArticleUsing SymPy’s lambdify for generating transform matrices and Jacobians
I’ve been working in VREP with some of their different robot models and testing out force control, and one of the things that becomes pretty important for efficient workflow is to have a streamlined...
View ArticleVelocity limiting in operational space control
Recently, I was reading through an older paper on effective operational space control, talking specifically point to point control in operational space. The paper mentioned that even if you have a...
View ArticleFull body obstacle collision avoidance
Previously I’ve discussed how to avoid obstacles using DMPs in the end-effector trajectory. This is good when you’re controlling a single disconnected point-mass, like a mobile robot navigating around...
View ArticleABR Control repo public release!
https://github.com/abr/abr_control Last August I started working on a new version of my old control repo with a resolve to make something less hacky, as part of the work for Applied Brain Research,...
View ArticleBuilding a spiking neural model of adaptive arm control
About a year ago I published the work from my thesis in a paper called ‘A spiking neural model of adaptive arm control’. In this paper I presented the Recurrent Error-driven Adaptive Control Hierarchy...
View ArticleForce control of task-space orientation
So you want to use force control to control the orientation of your end-effector, eh? What a noble endeavour. I, too, wished to control the orientation of the end-effector. While the journey was long...
View ArticleSpiking neural networks take control
Back in September I had an review article in Science Robotics published, discussing new work from Abadia et al, 2021 titled A cerebellar-based solution to the nondeterministic time delay problem in...
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