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Jongeun Choi

Publications and source records attributed to Jongeun Choi.

30 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

A Comparison Between Lie Group- and Lie Algebra- Based Potential Functions for Geometric Impedance Control

In this paper, a comparison analysis between geometric impedance controls (GICs) derived from two different potential functions on SE(3) for robotic manipulators is presented. The first potential function is defined on the Lie group, utilizing the Frobenius norm of the configuration error matrix. The second potential function is defined utilizing the Lie algebra, i.e., log-map of the configuration error. Using a differential geometric approach, the detailed derivation of the distance metric and potential function on SE(3) is introduced. The GIC laws are respectively derived from the two potential functions, followed by extensive comparison analyses. In the qualitative analysis, the properties of the error function and control laws are analyzed, while the performances of the controllers are quantitatively compared using numerical simulation.

cs.RO↗

Contact-rich SE(3)-Equivariant Robot Manipulation Task Learning via Geometric Impedance Control

This paper presents a differential geometric control approach that leverages SE(3) group invariance and equivariance to increase transferability in learning robot manipulation tasks that involve interaction with the environment. Specifically, we employ a control law and a learning representation framework that remain invariant under arbitrary SE(3) transformations of the manipulation task definition. Furthermore, the control law and learning representation framework are shown to be SE(3) equivariant when represented relative to the spatial frame. The proposed approach is based on utilizing a recently presented geometric impedance control (GIC) combined with a learning variable impedance control framework, where the gain scheduling policy is trained in a supervised learning fashion from expert demonstrations. A geometrically consistent error vector (GCEV) is fed to a neural network to achieve a gain scheduling policy that remains invariant to arbitrary translation and rotations. A comparison of our proposed control and learning framework with a well-known Cartesian space learning impedance control, equipped with a Cartesian error vector-based gain scheduling policy, confirms the significantly superior learning transferability of our proposed approach. A hardware implementation on a peg-in-hole task is conducted to validate the learning transferability and feasibility of the proposed approach.

cs.RO↗

Diffusion-EDFs: Bi-equivariant Denoising Generative Modeling on SE(3) for Visual Robotic Manipulation

Diffusion generative modeling has become a promising approach for learning robotic manipulation tasks from stochastic human demonstrations. In this paper, we present Diffusion-EDFs, a novel SE(3)-equivariant diffusion-based approach for visual robotic manipulation tasks. We show that our proposed method achieves remarkable data efficiency, requiring only 5 to 10 human demonstrations for effective end-to-end training in less than an hour. Furthermore, our benchmark experiments demonstrate that our approach has superior generalizability and robustness compared to state-of-the-art methods. Lastly, we validate our methods with real hardware experiments. Project Website: https://sites.google.com/view/diffusion-edfs/home

cs.RO↗

Clustering Techniques for Stable Linear Dynamical Systems with applications to Hard Disk Drives

In Robust Control and Data Driven Robust Control design methodologies, multiple plant transfer functions or a family of transfer functions are considered and a common controller is designed such that all the plants that fall into this family are stabilized. Though the plants are stabilized, the controller might be sub-optimal for each of the plants when the variations in the plants are large. This paper presents a way of clustering stable linear dynamical systems for the design of robust controllers within each of the clusters such that the controllers are optimal for each of the clusters. First a k-medoids algorithm for hard clustering will be presented for stable Linear Time Invariant (LTI) systems and then a Gaussian Mixture Models (GMM) clustering for a special class of LTI systems, common for Hard Disk Drive plants, will be presented.

eess.SY↗

Regularized Nonlinear Regression with Dependent Errors and its Application to a Biomechanical Model

A biomechanical model often requires parameter estimation and selection in a known but complicated nonlinear function. Motivated by observing that data from a head-neck position tracking system, one of biomechanical models, show multiplicative time dependent errors, we develop a modified penalized weighted least squares estimator. The proposed method can be also applied to a model with non-zero mean time dependent additive errors. Asymptotic properties of the proposed estimator are investigated under mild conditions on a weight matrix and the error process. A simulation study demonstrates that the proposed estimation works well in both parameter estimation and selection with time dependent error. The analysis and comparison with an existing method for head-neck position tracking data show better performance of the proposed method in terms of the variance accounted for (VAF).

stat.ME↗

Spatial Regression With Multiplicative Errors, and Its Application With Lidar Measurements

Multiplicative errors in addition to spatially referenced observations often arise in geodetic applications, particularly in surface estimation with light detection and ranging (LiDAR) measurements. However, spatial regression involving multiplicative errors remains relatively unexplored in such applications. In this regard, we present a penalized modified least squares estimator to handle the complexities of a multiplicative error structure while identifying significant variables in spatially dependent observations for surface estimation. The proposed estimator can be also applied to classical additive error spatial regression. By establishing asymptotic properties of the proposed estimator under increasing domain asymptotics with stochastic sampling design, we provide a rigorous foundation for its effectiveness. A comprehensive simulation study confirms the superior performance of our proposed estimator in accurately estimating and selecting parameters, outperforming existing approaches. To demonstrate its real-world applicability, we employ our proposed method, along with other alternative techniques, to estimate a rotational landslide surface using LiDAR measurements. The results highlight the efficacy and potential of our approach in tackling complex spatial regression problems involving multiplicative errors.

stat.ME↗

Equivariant Descriptor Fields: SE(3)-Equivariant Energy-Based Models for End-to-End Visual Robotic Manipulation Learning

End-to-end learning for visual robotic manipulation is known to suffer from sample inefficiency, requiring large numbers of demonstrations. The spatial roto-translation equivariance, or the SE(3)-equivariance can be exploited to improve the sample efficiency for learning robotic manipulation. In this paper, we present SE(3)-equivariant models for visual robotic manipulation from point clouds that can be trained fully end-to-end. By utilizing the representation theory of the Lie group, we construct novel SE(3)-equivariant energy-based models that allow highly sample efficient end-to-end learning. We show that our models can learn from scratch without prior knowledge and yet are highly sample efficient (5~10 demonstrations are enough). Furthermore, we show that our models can generalize to tasks with (i) previously unseen target object poses, (ii) previously unseen target object instances of the category, and (iii) previously unseen visual distractors. We experiment with 6-DoF robotic manipulation tasks to validate our models' sample efficiency and generalizability. Codes are available at: https://github.com/tomato1mule/edf

cs.RO↗

Layered Cost-Map-Based Traffic Management for Multiple Automated Mobile Robots via a Data Distribution Service

This letter proposes traffic management for multiple automated mobile robots (AMRs) based on a layered cost map. Multiple AMRs communicate via a data distribution service (DDS), which is shared by topics in the same DDS domain. The cost of each layer is manipulated by topics. The traffic management server in the domain sends or receives topics to each of AMRs. Using the layered cost map, the new concept of prohibition filter, lane filter, fleet layer, and region filter are proposed and implemented. The prohibition filter can help a user set an area that would prohibit an AMR from trespassing. The lane filter can help set one-way directions based on an angle image. The fleet layer can help AMRs share their locations via the traffic management server. The region filter requests for or receives an exclusive area, which can be occupied by only one AMR, from the traffic management server. All the layers are experimentally validated with real-world AMRs. Each area can be configured with user-defined images or text-based parameter files.

cs.RO↗

Hierarchical Primitive Composition: Simultaneous Activation of Skills with Inconsistent Action Dimensions in Multiple Hierarchies

Deep reinforcement learning has shown its effectiveness in various applications, providing a promising direction for solving tasks with high complexity. However, naively applying classical RL for learning a complex long-horizon task with a single control policy is inefficient. Thus, policy modularization tackles this problem by learning a set of modules that are mapped to primitives and properly orchestrating them. In this study, we further expand the discussion by incorporating simultaneous activation of the skills and structuring them into multiple hierarchies in a recursive fashion. Moreover, we sought to devise an algorithm that can properly orchestrate the skills with different action spaces via multiplicative Gaussian distributions, which highly increases the reusability. By exploiting the modularity, interpretability can also be achieved by observing the modules that are used in the new task if each of the skills is known. We demonstrate how the proposed scheme can be employed in practice by solving a pick and place task with a 6 DoF manipulator, and examine the effects of each property from ablation studies.

cs.LG↗

Regularized Nonlinear Regression for Simultaneously Selecting and Estimating Key Model Parameters

In system identification, estimating parameters of a model using limited observations results in poor identifiability. To cope with this issue, we propose a new method to simultaneously select and estimate sensitive parameters as key model parameters and fix the remaining parameters to a set of typical values. Our method is formulated as a nonlinear least squares estimator with L1-regularization on the deviation of parameters from a set of typical values. First, we provide consistency and oracle properties of the proposed estimator as a theoretical foundation. Second, we provide a novel approach based on Levenberg-Marquardt optimization to numerically find the solution to the formulated problem. Third, to show the effectiveness, we present an application identifying a biomechanical parametric model of a head position tracking task for 10 human subjects from limited data. In a simulation study, the variances of estimated parameters are decreased by 96.1% as compared to that of the estimated parameters without L1-regularization. In an experimental study, our method improves the model interpretation by reducing the number of parameters to be estimated while maintaining variance accounted for (VAF) at above 82.5%. Moreover, the variances of estimated parameters are reduced by 71.1% as compared to that of the estimated parameters without L1-regularization. Our method is 54 times faster than the standard simplex-based optimization to solve the regularized nonlinear regression.

stat.ME↗

Behavior Tree-Based Task Planning for Multiple Mobile Robots using a Data Distribution Service

In this study, we propose task planning framework for multiple robots that builds on a behavior tree (BT). BTs communicate with a data distribution service (DDS) to send and receive data. Since the standard BT derived from one root node with a single tick is unsuitable for multiple robots, a novel type of BT action and improved nodes are proposed to control multiple robots through a DDS asynchronously. To plan tasks for robots efficiently, a single task planning unit is implemented with the proposed task types. The task planning unit assigns tasks to each robot simultaneously through a single coalesced BT. If any robot falls into a fault while performing its assigned task, another BT embedded in the robot is executed; the robot enters the recovery mode in order to overcome the fault. To perform this function, the action in the BT corresponding to the task is defined as a variable, which is shared with the DDS so that any action can be exchanged between the task planning unit and robots. To show the feasibility of our framework in a real-world application, three mobile robots were experimentally coordinated for them to travel alternately to four goal positions by the proposed single task planning unit via a DDS.

cs.RO↗

Model Predictive Tracking Control for Invariant Systems on Matrix Lie Groups via Stable Embedding into Euclidean Spaces

For controller design for systems on manifolds embedded in Euclidean space, it is convenient to utilize a theory that requires a single global coordinate system on the ambient Euclidean space rather than multiple local charts on the manifold or coordinate-free tools from differential geometry. In this article, we apply such a theory to design model predictive tracking controllers for systems whose dynamics evolve on manifolds and illustrate its efficacy with the fully actuated rigid body attitude control system.

math.OC↗