Proprioception Enhances Vision Language Model in Generating Captions and Subtask Segmentations for Robot Task

From the perspective of future developments in robotics, it is crucial to verify whether foundation models trained exclusively on offline data, such as images and language, can understand the robot motion. In particular, since Vision Language Models (VLMs) do not include low-level motion information from robots in their training datasets, video understanding including trajectory information remains a significant challenge. In this study, we assess two capabilities of VLMs through a video captioning task with low-level robot motion information: (1) automatic captioning of robot tasks and (2) segmentation of a series of tasks. Both capabilities are expected to enhance the efficiency of robot imitation learning by linking language and motion and serve as a measure of the foundation model's performance. The proposed method generates multiple "scene" captions using image captions and trajectory data from robot tasks. The full task caption is then generated by summarizing these individual captions. Additionally, the method performs subtask segmentation by comparing the similarity between text embeddings of image captions. In both captioning tasks, the proposed method aims to improve performance by providing the robot's motion data - joint and end-effector states - as input to the VLM. Simulator experiments were conducted to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Input-gated Bilateral Teleoperation: An Easy-to-implement Force Feedback Teleoperation Method for Low-cost Hardware

Effective data collection in contact-rich manipulation requires force feedback during teleoperation, as accurate perception of contact is crucial for stable control. However, such technology remains uncommon, largely because bilateral teleoperation systems are complex and difficult to implement. To overcome this, we propose a bilateral teleoperation method that relies only on a simple feedback controller and does not require force sensors. The approach is designed for leader-follower setups using low-cost hardware, making it broadly applicable. Through numerical simulations and real-world experiments, we demonstrate that the method requires minimal parameter tuning, yet achieves both high operability and contact stability, outperforming conventional approaches. Furthermore, we show its high robustness: even at low communication cycle rates between leader and follower, control performance degradation is minimal compared to high-speed operation. We also prove our method can be implemented on two types of commercially available low-cost hardware with zero parameter adjustments. This highlights its high ease of implementation and versatility. We expect this method will expand the use of force feedback teleoperation systems on low-cost hardware. This will contribute to advancing contact-rich task autonomy in imitation learning.

Close-Fitting Dressing Assistance Based on State Estimation of Feet and Garments with Semantic-based Visual Attention

As the population continues to age, a shortage of caregivers is expected in the future. Dressing assistance, in particular, is crucial for opportunities for social participation. Especially dressing close-fitting garments, such as socks, remains challenging due to the need for fine force adjustments to handle the friction or snagging against the skin, while considering the shape and position of the garment. This study introduces a method uses multi-modal information including not only robot's camera images, joint angles, joint torques, but also tactile forces for proper force interaction that can adapt to individual differences in humans. Furthermore, by introducing semantic information based on object concepts, rather than relying solely on RGB data, it can be generalized to unseen feet and background. In addition, incorporating depth data helps infer relative spatial relationship between the sock and the foot. To validate its capability for semantic object conceptualization and to ensure safety, training data were collected using a mannequin, and subsequent experiments were conducted with human subjects. In experiments, the robot successfully adapted to previously unseen human feet and was able to put socks on 10 participants, achieving a higher success rate than Action Chunking with Transformer and Diffusion Policy. These results demonstrate that the proposed model can estimate the state of both the garment and the foot, enabling precise dressing assistance for close-fitting garments.

Focused Blind Switching Manipulation Based on Constrained and Regional Touch States of Multi-Fingered Hand Using Deep Learning

To achieve a desired grasping posture (including object position and orientation), multi-finger motions need to be conducted according to the the current touch state. Specifically, when subtle changes happen during correcting the object state, not only proprioception but also tactile information from the entire hand can be beneficial. However, switching motions with high-DOFs of multiple fingers and abundant tactile information is still challenging. In this study, we propose a loss function with constraints of touch states and an attention mechanism for focusing on important modalities depending on the touch states. The policy model is AE-LSTM which consists of Autoencoder (AE) which compresses abundant tactile information and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) which switches the motion depending on the touch states. Motion for cap-opening was chosen as a target task which consists of subtasks of sliding an object and opening its cap. As a result, the proposed method achieved the best success rates with a variety of objects for real time cap-opening manipulation. Furthermore, we could confirm that the proposed model acquired the features of each subtask and attention on specific modalities.

Visual Imitation Learning of Non-Prehensile Manipulation Tasks with Dynamics-Supervised Models

Unlike quasi-static robotic manipulation tasks like pick-and-place, dynamic tasks such as non-prehensile manipulation pose greater challenges, especially for vision-based control. Successful control requires the extraction of features relevant to the target task. In visual imitation learning settings, these features can be learnt by backpropagating the policy loss through the vision backbone. Yet, this approach tends to learn task-specific features with limited generalizability. Alternatively, learning world models can realize more generalizable vision backbones. Utilizing the learnt features, task-specific policies are subsequently trained. Commonly, these models are trained solely to predict the next RGB state from the current state and action taken. But only-RGB prediction might not fully-capture the task-relevant dynamics. In this work, we hypothesize that direct supervision of target dynamic states (Dynamics Mapping) can learn better dynamics-informed world models. Beside the next RGB reconstruction, the world model is also trained to directly predict position, velocity, and acceleration of environment rigid bodies. To verify our hypothesis, we designed a non-prehensile 2D environment tailored to two tasks: "Balance-Reaching" and "Bin-Dropping". When trained on the first task, dynamics mapping enhanced the task performance under different training configurations (Decoupled, Joint, End-to-End) and policy architectures (Feedforward, Recurrent). Notably, its most significant impact was for world model pretraining boosting the success rate from 21% to 85%. Although frozen dynamics-informed world models could generalize well to a task with in-domain dynamics, but poorly to a one with out-of-domain dynamics.

Achieving Faster and More Accurate Operation of Deep Predictive Learning

Achieving both high speed and precision in robot operations is a significant challenge for social implementation. While factory robots excel at predefined tasks, they struggle with environment-specific actions like cleaning and cooking. Deep learning research aims to address this by enabling robots to autonomously execute behaviors through end-to-end learning with sensor data. RT-1 and ACT are notable examples that have expanded robots' capabilities. However, issues with model inference speed and hand position accuracy persist. High-quality training data and fast, stable inference mechanisms are essential to overcome these challenges. This paper proposes a motion generation model for high-speed, high-precision tasks, exemplified by the sports stacking task. By teaching motions slowly and inferring at high speeds, the model achieved a 94% success rate in stacking cups with a real robot.

Dual-arm Motion Generation for Repositioning Care based on Deep Predictive Learning with Somatosensory Attention Mechanism

A versatile robot working in a domestic environment based on a deep neural network (DNN) is currently attracting attention. One of the roles expected for domestic robots is caregiving for a human. In particular, we focus on repositioning care because repositioning plays a fundamental role in supporting the health and quality of life of individuals with limited mobility. However, generating motions of the repositioning care, avoiding applying force to non-target parts and applying appropriate force to target parts, remains challenging. In this study, we proposed a DNN-based architecture using visual and somatosensory attention mechanisms that can generate dual-arm repositioning motions which involve different sequential policies of interaction force; contact-less reaching and contact-based assisting motions. We used the humanoid robot Dry-AIREC, which features the capability to adjust joint impedance dynamically. In the experiment, the repositioning assistance from the supine position to the sitting position was conducted by Dry-AIREC. The trained model, utilizing the proposed architecture, successfully guided the robot's hand to the back of the mannequin without excessive contact force on the mannequin and provided adequate support and appropriate contact for postural adjustment.

Sensorimotor Attention and Language-based Regressions in Shared Latent Variables for Integrating Robot Motion Learning and LLM

In recent years, studies have been actively conducted on combining large language models (LLM) and robotics; however, most have not considered end-to-end feedback in the robot-motion generation phase. The prediction of deep neural networks must contain errors, it is required to update the trained model to correspond to the real environment to generate robot motion adaptively. This study proposes an integration method that connects the robot-motion learning model and LLM using shared latent variables. When generating robot motion, the proposed method updates shared parameters based on prediction errors from both sensorimotor attention points and task language instructions given to the robot. This allows the model to search for latent parameters appropriate for the robot task efficiently. Through simulator experiments on multiple robot tasks, we demonstrated the effectiveness of our proposed method from two perspectives: position generalization and language instruction generalization abilities.

A Peg-in-hole Task Strategy for Holes in Concrete

A method that enables an industrial robot to accomplish the peg-in-hole task for holes in concrete is proposed. The proposed method involves slightly detaching the peg from the wall, when moving between search positions, to avoid the negative influence of the concrete's high friction coefficient. It uses a deep neural network (DNN), trained via reinforcement learning, to effectively find holes with variable shape and surface finish (due to the brittle nature of concrete) without analytical modeling or control parameter tuning. The method uses displacement of the peg toward the wall surface, in addition to force and torque, as one of the inputs of the DNN. Since the displacement increases as the peg gets closer to the hole (due to the chamfered shape of holes in concrete), it is a useful parameter for inputting in the DNN. The proposed method was evaluated by training the DNN on a hole 500 times and attempting to find 12 unknown holes. The results of the evaluation show the DNN enabled a robot to find the unknown holes with average success rate of 96.1% and average execution time of 12.5 seconds. Additional evaluations with random initial positions and a different type of peg demonstrate the trained DNN can generalize well to different conditions. Analyses of the influence of the peg displacement input showed the success rate of the DNN is increased by utilizing this parameter. These results validate the proposed method in terms of its effectiveness and applicability to the construction industry.

Visual Spatial Attention and Proprioceptive Data-Driven Reinforcement Learning for Robust Peg-in-Hole Task Under Variable Conditions

Anchor-bolt insertion is a peg-in-hole task performed in the construction field for holes in concrete. Efforts have been made to automate this task, but the variable lighting and hole surface conditions, as well as the requirements for short setup and task execution time make the automation challenging. In this study, we introduce a vision and proprioceptive data-driven robot control model for this task that is robust to challenging lighting and hole surface conditions. This model consists of a spatial attention point network (SAP) and a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) policy that are trained jointly end-to-end to control the robot. The model is trained in an offline manner, with a sample-efficient framework designed to reduce training time and minimize the reality gap when transferring the model to the physical world. Through evaluations with an industrial robot performing the task in 12 unknown holes, starting from 16 different initial positions, and under three different lighting conditions (two with misleading shadows), we demonstrate that SAP can generate relevant attention points of the image even in challenging lighting conditions. We also show that the proposed model enables task execution with higher success rate and shorter task completion time than various baselines. Due to the proposed model's high effectiveness even in severe lighting, initial positions, and hole conditions, and the offline training framework's high sample-efficiency and short training time, this approach can be easily applied to construction.