RIVeR Lab

In expeditionary medical facilities, routine patient transport imposes a compounding burden of personal protective equipment consumption, staff diversion, and elevated infection risk that becomes unsustainable under surge conditions. While autonomous wheelchairs could absorb this operational load, the safety-critical nature of patient transit within these highly unstructured and dynamic environme…

In this work, we focus on the scenario of a robot-assisted emergency evacuation. We consider two capabilities relevant to such a setting. The first is opening doors ahead of the people being evacuated, so that their path toward an exit stays clear. The second is retrieving rescue equipment and delivering it to the emergency responders carrying out the evacuation. From a systems perspective, this …

Assistive mobility and manipulation platforms have received increasing attention as a means of restoring independence to individuals with disabilities. While effective for many basic activities of daily living (ADLs), a significant percentage of everyday tasks such as opening a jar, pouring a liquid, lifting a tray, or basic meal preparation, is fundamentally bimanual and remains out of reach for…

The presentation of a robot’s capability and identity directly influences a human collaborator’s perception and implicit trust in the robot. Unlike humans, a physical robot can simultaneously present different identities and have them reside and control different parts of the robot. This paper presents a novel study that investigates how users perceive a robot where different robot control domain…

The deployment of multi-robot systems for planetary surface operations is essential as space exploration initiatives grow in scale and complexity. Coordinated convoys of rovers hold promise for a range of critical missions, including scientific exploration, material transport, infrastructure construction, and emergency response. However, enabling robust inter-rover communication and dynamic coord…

Landslides cause $2-4 billion in annual damages and 4,500 fatalities globally, yet current satellite monitoring lacks the resolution and temporal flexibility for early detection. We present an autonomous robotic platform with advanced perception integrating hyperspectral VNIR/SWIR imaging, 16-channel LiDAR, and RGB camera system for comprehensive slope stability assessment. The system enables soi…

Embodiments include systems for determining one or more properties of an object. In an embodiment, a system includes a gripping element, a light source, a probe element including an optical fiber, a spectrometer, and a processor. The gripping element is configured to grasp the object. The light source is configured to illuminate the object. The probe element is operatively coupled to the gripping…

Traditional motion planning methods for robots with many degrees-of-freedom, such as mobile manipulators, are often computationally prohibitive for real-world settings. In this paper, we propose a novel multi-model motion planning pipeline, termed Re4MPC, which computes trajectories using Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC). Re4MPC generates trajectories in a computationally efficient manne…

Systems and methods for determining properties of an object are disclosed. A system includes a gripping element and at least one waveguide coupled to the gripping element. The waveguide is configured to transport a light signal through the gripping element and to transmit the light signal, at least a portion of the light signal illuminating the object. A detector is configured to detect at least …

Traditional approaches to motion modeling for skid-steer robots struggle to capture nonlinear tire-terrain dynamics, especially during high-speed maneuvers. In this paper, we tackle such nonlinearities by enhancing a dynamic unicycle model with Gaussian Process (GP) regression outputs. This enables us to develop an adaptive, uncertainty-informed navigation formulation. We solve the resultant stoc…

A system, method, and means for manipulating deformable objects are provided. The system may comprise a baseplate and at least one appendage actuation module configured to mount on the baseplate. The at least one appendage actuation module may include an appendage of rigid and elongate construction, a platform, and at least one actuation device. The at least one actuation device may be in coupled…

This paper presents constrained_manipulability, a C++ library to compute and visualize a robot manipulator’s constrained motion capacities. Manipulability polytopes provide a geometrical tool to evaluate the volume of free space surrounding the robotic arm when considering both environmental and intrinsic robot constraints, such as collisions and joint limits, respectively. Moreover, the polytope…

In real-life teleoperation scenarios, the presence of time-varying network delays, particularly in wireless networks, poses significant challenges in maintaining stability in a bilateral teleoperation system. Various approaches have been proposed in the past to address stability concerns; however, these often come at the expense of system transparency. Nevertheless, increasing transparency is cru…

The ANA Avatar XPRIZE was a four-year competition to develop a robotic “avatar” system to allow a human operator to sense, communicate, and act in a remote environment as though physically present. The competition featured a unique requirement that judges would operate the avatars after less than one hour of training on the human-machine interfaces, and avatar systems were judged on both objectiv…

This paper presents robot_collision_checking, a C++ library that provides a Robot Operating System (ROS) interface to the Flexible Collision Library (FCL) for typical robotics applications. FCL is an open-source C++ library that provides efficient collision detection and distance computation for 3D environments. While these capabilities are crucial in robotics to ensure safety and enable effectiv…

With the rapid increase in wildfires in the past decade, it has become necessary to detect and predict these disasters to mitigate losses to ecosystems and human lives. In this paper, we present a novel solution - Hyper-Drive3D - consisting of snapshot hyperspectral imaging and LiDAR, mounted on an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) that identifies areas inside forests at risk of becoming fuel for a f…

The inspection of confined critical infrastructure such as attics or crawlspaces is challenging for human operators due to insufficient task space, limited visibility, and the presence of hazardous materials. This paper introduces a prototype of PARIS (Precision Application Robot for Inaccessible Spaces): a use-inspired teleoperated mobile robot manipulator system that was conceived, developed, a…

Shared control can ease and enhance a human operator’s ability to teleoperate robots, particularly for intricate tasks demanding fine control over multiple degrees of freedom. However, the arbitration process dictating how much autonomous assistance to administer in shared control can confuse novice operators and impede their understanding of the robot’s behavior. To overcome these adverse side-e…

Near Infrared (NIR) spectroscopy is widely used in industrial quality control and automation to test the purity and grade of items. In this research, we propose a novel sensorized end effector and acquisition strategy to capture spectral signatures from objects and register them with a 3D point cloud. Our methodology first takes a 3D scan of an object generated by a time-of-flight depth camera an…

Visual navigation has received significant attention recently. Most of the prior works focus on predicting navigation actions based on semantic features extracted from visual encoders. However, these approaches often rely on large datasets and exhibit limited generalizability. In contrast, our approach draws inspiration from traditional navigation planners that operate on geometric representation…