robotics

A Survey of Recent Scalability Improvements for Semidefinite Programming with Applications in Machine Learning, Control, and Robotics

  • Amir Ali Ahmadi
  • Georgina Hall
  • Anirudha Majumdar
    • Categories Basic Sciences Applications, Control Applications, Semi-definite Programming Tags , , , ,

    Historically, scalability has been a major challenge to the successful application of semidefinite programming in fields such as machine learning, control, and robotics. In this paper, we survey recent approaches for addressing this challenge including (i) approaches for exploiting structure (e.g., sparsity and symmetry) in a problem, (ii) approaches that produce low-rank approximate solutions to … Read more

    Combining Multi-Level Real-time Iterations of Nonlinear Model Predictive Control to Realize Squatting Motions on Leo

  • Christian Kirches
  • Ivan Koryakovskiy
  • Manuel Kudruss
  • Katja Mombaur
  • Heike Vallery
    • Categories Constrained Nonlinear Optimization, Control Applications, Nonlinear Systems and Least-Squares Tags , , , , ,

    Today’s humanoid robots are complex mechanical systems with many degrees of freedom that are built to achieve locomotion skills comparable to humans. In order to synthesize whole-body motions, real-tme capable direct methods of optimal control are a subject of contemporary research. To this end, Nonlinear Model Predictive Control is the method of choice to realize … Read more

    Fast Computation of Optimal Contact Forces

  • Stephen Boyd
  • Ben Wegbreit
    • Categories Convex Optimization, Mechanical Engineering, Second-Order Cone Programming Tags , , ,

    We consider the problem of computing the smallest contact forces, with point-contact friction model, that can hold an object in equilibrium against a known external applied force and torque. It is known that the force optimization problem (FOP) can be formulated as a semidefinite programming problem (SDP), or a second-order cone problem (SOCP), and so … Read more