arXiv subjects

Sebastian Kerz

Publications and source records attributed to Sebastian Kerz.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Grasping in Uncertain Environments: A Case Study For Industrial Robotic Recycling

Autonomous robotic grasping of uncertain objects in uncertain environments is an impactful open challenge for the industries of the future. One such industry is the recycling of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) materials, in which electric devices are disassembled and readied for the recovery of raw materials. Since devices may contain hazardous materials and their disassembly involves heavy manual labor, robotic disassembly is a promising venue. However, since devices may be damaged, dirty and unidentified, robotic disassembly is challenging since object models are unavailable or cannot be relied upon. This case study explores grasping strategies for industrial robotic disassembly of WEEE devices with uncertain vision data. We propose three grippers and appropriate tactile strategies for force-based manipulation that improves grasping robustness. For each proposed gripper, we develop corresponding strategies that can perform effectively in different grasping tasks and leverage the grippers design and unique strengths. Through experiments conducted in lab and factory settings for four different WEEE devices, we demonstrate how object uncertainty may be overcome by tactile sensing and compliant techniques, significantly increasing grasping success rates.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2024

Adaptive Stochastic Predictive Control from Noisy Data: A Sampling-based Approach

In this work, an adaptive predictive control scheme for linear systems with unknown parameters and bounded additive disturbances is proposed. In contrast to related adaptive control approaches that robustly consider the parametric uncertainty, the proposed method handles all uncertainties stochastically by employing an online adaptive sampling-based approximation of chance constraints. The approach requires initial data in the form of a short input-output trajectory and distributional knowledge of the disturbances. This prior knowledge is used to construct an initial set of data-consistent system parameters and a distribution that allows for sample generation. As new data stream in online, the set of consistent system parameters is adapted by exploiting set membership identification. Consequently, chance constraints are deterministically approximated using a probabilistic scaling approach by sampling from the set of system parameters. In combination with a robust constraint on the first predicted step, recursive feasibility of the proposed predictive controller and closed-loop constraint satisfaction are guaranteed. A numerical example demonstrates the efficacy of the proposed method.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2024

Sampling-based Stochastic Data-driven Predictive Control under Data Uncertainty - Extended Version

We present a stochastic constrained output-feedback data-driven predictive control scheme for linear time-invariant systems subject to bounded additive disturbances. The approach uses data-driven predictors based on an extension of Willems' fundamental lemma and requires only a single persistently exciting input-output data trajectory. Compared to current state-of-the-art approaches, we do not rely on availability of exact disturbance data. Instead, we leverage a novel parameterization of the unknown disturbance data considering consistency with the measured data and the system class. This allows for deterministic approximation of the chance constraints in a sampling-based fashion. A robust constraint on the first predicted step enables recursive feasibility, closed-loop constraint satisfaction, and robust asymptotic stability in expectation under standard assumptions. A numerical example demonstrates the efficiency of the proposed control scheme.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2023

An Online Adaptation Strategy for Direct Data-driven Control

The fundamental lemma from behavioral systems theory yields a data-driven non-parametric system representation that has shown great potential for the data-efficient control of unknown linear and weakly nonlinear systems, even in the presence of measurement noise. In this work, we strive to extend the applicability of this paradigm to more strongly nonlinear systems by updating the system representation during control. Unlike existing approaches, our method does not impose suitable excitation to the control inputs, but runs as an observer parallel to the controller. Whenever a rank condition is deemed to be fulfilled, the system representation is updated using newly available datapoints. In a reference tracking simulation of a two-link robotic arm, we showcase the performance of the proposed strategy in a predictive control framework.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2023

Offline Uncertainty Sampling in Data-driven Stochastic MPC

In this work, we exploit an offline-sampling based strategy for the constrained data-driven predictive control of an unknown linear system subject to random measurement noise. The strategy uses only past measured, potentially noisy data in a non-parametric system representation and does not require any prior model identification. The approximation of chance constraints using uncertainty sampling leads to efficient constraint tightening. Under mild assumptions, robust recursive feasibility and closed-loop constraint satisfaction is shown. In a simulation example, we provide evidence for the improved control performance of the proposed control scheme in comparison to a purely robust data-driven predictive control approach.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2023

Data-driven tube-based stochastic predictive control

A powerful result from behavioral systems theory known as the fundamental lemma allows for predictive control akin to Model Predictive Control (MPC) for linear time invariant (LTI) systems with unknown dynamics purely from data. While most of data-driven predictive control literature focuses on robustness with respect to measurement noise, only few works consider exploiting probabilistic information of disturbances for performance-oriented control as in stochastic MPC. In this work, we propose a novel data-driven stochastic predictive control scheme for chance-constrained LTI systems subject to measurement noise and additive stochastic disturbances. In order to render the otherwise stochastic and intractable optimal control problem deterministic, our approach leverages ideas from tube-based MPC by decomposing the state into a deterministic nominal state driven by inputs and a stochastic error state affected by disturbances. By tightening constraints probabilistically with respect to the additive disturbance and robustly with respect to the measurement noise, satisfaction of original chance-constraints is guaranteed. The resulting data-driven receding horizon optimal control problem is lightweight and recursively feasible, and renders the closed loop input-to-state stable with respect to both additive disturbances and measurement noise. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in a simulation example.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2022

Diffeomorphically Learning Stable Koopman Operators

System representations inspired by the infinite-dimensional Koopman operator (generator) are increasingly considered for predictive modeling. Due to the operator's linearity, a range of nonlinear systems admit linear predictor representations - allowing for simplified prediction, analysis and control. However, finding meaningful finite-dimensional representations for prediction is difficult as it involves determining features that are both Koopman-invariant (evolve linearly under the dynamics) as well as relevant (spanning the original state) - a generally unsupervised problem. In this work, we present Koopmanizing Flows - a novel continuous-time framework for supervised learning of linear predictors for a class of nonlinear dynamics. In our model construction a latent diffeomorphically related linear system unfolds into a linear predictor through the composition with a monomial basis. The lifting, its linear dynamics and state reconstruction are learned simultaneously, while an unconstrained parameterization of Hurwitz matrices ensures asymptotic stability regardless of the operator approximation accuracy. The superior efficacy of Koopmanizing Flows is demonstrated in comparison to a state-of-the-art method on the well-known LASA handwriting benchmark.

cs.LG↗