EmbodiedAgent: A Scalable Hierarchical Approach to Overcome Practical Challenge in Multi-Robot Control

This paper introduces EmbodiedAgent, a hierarchical framework for heterogeneous multi-robot control. EmbodiedAgent addresses critical limitations of hallucination in impractical tasks. Our approach integrates a next-action prediction paradigm with a structured memory system to decompose tasks into executable robot skills while dynamically validating actions against environmental constraints. We present MultiPlan+, a dataset of more than 18,000 annotated planning instances spanning 100 scenarios, including a subset of impractical cases to mitigate hallucination. To evaluate performance, we propose the Robot Planning Assessment Schema (RPAS), combining automated metrics with LLM-aided expert grading. Experiments demonstrate EmbodiedAgent's superiority over state-of-the-art models, achieving 71.85% RPAS score. Real-world validation in an office service task highlights its ability to coordinate heterogeneous robots for long-horizon objectives.

GenTe: Generative Real-world Terrains for General Legged Robot Locomotion Control

Developing bipedal robots capable of traversing diverse real-world terrains presents a fundamental robotics challenge, as existing methods using predefined height maps and static environments fail to address the complexity of unstructured landscapes. To bridge this gap, we propose GenTe, a framework for generating physically realistic and adaptable terrains to train generalizable locomotion policies. GenTe constructs an atomic terrain library that includes both geometric and physical terrains, enabling curriculum training for reinforcement learning-based locomotion policies. By leveraging function-calling techniques and reasoning capabilities of Vision-Language Models (VLMs), GenTe generates complex, contextually relevant terrains from textual and graphical inputs. The framework introduces realistic force modeling for terrain interactions, capturing effects such as soil sinkage and hydrodynamic resistance. To the best of our knowledge, GenTe is the first framework that systemically generates simulation environments for legged robot locomotion control. Additionally, we introduce a benchmark of 100 generated terrains. Experiments demonstrate improved generalization and robustness in bipedal robot locomotion.

Design and Control of the "TransBoat": A Transformable Unmanned Surface Vehicle for Overwater Construction

This paper presents the TransBoat, a novel omnidirectional unmanned surface vehicle (USV) with a magnetbased docking system for overwater construction with wave disturbances. This is the first such USV that can build overwater structures by transporting modules. The TransBoat incorporates two features designed to reject wave disturbances. First, the TransBoat's expandable body structure can actively transform from a mono-hull into a multi-hull for stabilization in turbulent environments by extending its four outrigger hulls. Second, a real-time nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) scheme is proposed for all shapes of the TransBoat to enhance its maneuverability and resist disturbance to its movement, based on a nonlinear dynamic model. An experimental approach is proposed to identify the parameters of the dynamic model, and a subsequent trajectory tracking test validates the dynamics, NMPC controller and system mobility. Further, docking experiments identify improved performance in the expanded form of the TransBoat compared with the contracted form, including an increased success rate (of ~ 10%) and reduced docking time (of ~ 40 s on average). Finally, a bridge construction test verifies our system design and the NMPC control method.