Alessandro Marino

Università degli studi di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale | UNICAS · Dipartimento DIEI

Wearable sensors have now become an essential reality in sports to assess motor gesture characteristics and health care in diagnosing movement-related diseases. Inertial devices can be used to reliably test an individual’s motor abilities, avoiding human operator-related errors and providing an automated, accurate and reproducible assessment method...

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative condition where dopaminergic medication, such as levodopa, is typically used to improve motor symptoms, including mobility. Identifying the impact of levodopa on real-world motor state (e.g. ON/OFF/ DYSKINESIA) is important for both clinicians and people with PD. The aim of the present work was to aut...

In this letter, the problem of distributively tracking the minimum infimum (or maximum supremum) of a set of time-varying signals in finite-time is addressed. More specifically, each agent has access to a local time-varying exogenous signal, and all the agents are required to follow the minimum infimum (or the maximum supremum) of these signals in...

The requirements of modern production systems together with more advanced robotic technologies have fostered the integration of teams comprising humans and autonomous robots. However, along with the potential benefits also comes the question of how to effectively handle these teams considering the different characteristics of the involved agents. F...

This work addresses the problem of retrieving a target object from cluttered environment using a robot manipulator. In the details, the proposed solution relies on a Task and Motion Planning approach based on a two-level architecture: the high-level is a Task Planner aimed at finding the optimal objects sequence to relocate, according to a metric b...

The detection analysis of neurodegenerative diseases by means of low-cost sensors and suitable classification algorithms is a key part of the widely spreading telemedicine techniques. The choice of suitable sensors and the tuning of analysis algorithms require a large amount of data, which could be derived from a large experimental measurement camp...

Visual action planning particularly excels in applications where the state of the system cannot be computed explicitly, such as manipulation of deformable objects, as it enables planning directly from raw images. Even though the field has been significantly accelerated by deep learning techniques, a crucial requirement for their success is the avai...

In this article, we present a framework for visual action planning of complex manipulation tasks with high-dimensional state spaces, focusing on manipulation of deformable objects. We propose a latent space roadmap (LSR) for task planning, which is a graph-based structure globally capturing the system dynamics in a low-dimensional latent space. Our...

In this paper, the problem of retrieving a target object from a cluttered environment through a mobile manipulator is considered. The task is solved by combining Task and Motion Planning; in detail, at a higher level, the task planner is in charge of planning the sequence of objects to relocate while, at a lower level, the motion planner is in char...

In this paper, a strategy to handle the human safety in a multi-robot scenario is devised. In the presented framework, it is foreseen that robots are in charge of performing any cooperative manipulation task which is parameterized by a proper task function. The devised architecture answers to the increasing demand of strict cooperation between huma...

In this paper, a Reinforcement Learning approach to the problem of grasping a target object from clutter by a robotic arm is addressed. A layered architecture is devised to the scope. The bottom layer is in charge of planning robot motion in order to relocate objects while taking into account robot constraints, whereas the top layer takes decision...

This paper considers a scenario where a robot and a human operator share the same workspace, and the robot is able to both carry out autonomous tasks and physically interact with the human in order to achieve common goals. In this context, both intentional and accidental contacts between human and robot might occur due to the complexity of tasks an...

In this work, we address a task allocation problem for human multi-robot settings. Given a set of tasks to perform, we formulate a general Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) problem aiming at minimizing the overall execution time while optimizing the quality of the executed tasks as well as human and robotic workload. Different skills of the a...

We present a framework for visual action planning of complex manipulation tasks with high-dimensional state spaces, focusing on manipulation of deformable objects. We propose a Latent Space Roadmap (LSR) for task planning, a graph-based structure capturing globally the system dynamics in a low-dimensional latent space. Our framework consists of thr...

The objective of this paper is to devise a general framework to allow a human operator to physically interact with an object manipulated by a multi-manipulator system in a distributed setting. A two layer solution is devised. In detail, at the top layer an arbitrary virtual dynamics is considered for the object with the virtual input chosen as the...

Purpose In the past decade, more than 700 million people are affected by some kind of disability or handicap. In this context, the research interest in assistive robotics is growing up. For people with mobility impairments, daily life operations, as dressing or feeding, require the assistance of dedicated people; thus, the use of devices providing...

Identifying the dynamic parameters of robots is a longstanding topic in robot control, and, recently, research in the area witnessed a renewal of activity. This is motivated by the high performance required for model-based control of, for example, legged or surgical robots and the need to obtain realistic simulations of such systems.

Nowadays, industrial robotics requires that robots and humans share the same workspace and collaborate to a certain extent. In such a scenario, the safety is the minimum requirement and, for this reason, many off-the-shelf collaborative robots are now available on the market which, basically, are able to limit the contact forces in the case of impa...

We present a framework for visual action planning of complex manipulation tasks with high-dimensional state spaces such as manipulation of deformable objects. Planning is performed in a low-dimensional latent state space that embeds images. We define and implement a Latent Space Roadmap (LSR) which is a graph-based structure that globally captures...

Cloth manipulation is a challenging task that, despite its importance, has received relatively little attention compared to rigid object manipulation. In this paper, we provide three benchmarks for evaluation and comparison of different approaches towards three basic tasks in cloth manipulation: spreading a tablecloth over a table, folding a towel,...

We propose a distributed framework for large scale networks to attain control strategies requiring k-hop interactions. This research is motivated by the observation that in many practical applications and operational domains involving large-scale networks, such as environmental monitoring or traffic load balancing, agents may be required to collect...

In this paper, the modeling and planning problems of a system composed of multiple ground and aerial robots involved in a transportation task are considered. The ground robots rigidly grasp a load, while the aerial vehicles are attached to the object through non-rigid inextensible cables. The idea behind such a heterogeneous multi-robot system is t...

This paper proposes a distributed algorithm for cooperatively manipulating an object rigidly grasped by a team of mobile manipulators. In order to increase the flexibility of the multi-robot cell and differently from other approaches, it is assumed that the object is completely unknown and there is not information exchange between robots. The devis...

In this paper, a strategy to handle the human safety in a multi-robot scenario is devised. In the presented framework, it is foreseen that robots are in charge of performing any cooperative manipulation task which is parameterized by a proper task function. The devised architecture answers to the increasing demand of strict cooperation between huma...

In this paper, we address the state estimation problem for multi-agent systems interacting in large scale networks. This research is motivated by the observation that in large-scale networks for many practical applications and domains, each agent only requires information concerning agents spatially close to its location, let's say topologically k-...

In this paper, we address the state estimation problem for multi-agent systems interacting in large scale networks. This research is motivated by the observation that in large-scale networks for many practical applications and domains, each agent only requires information concerning agents spatially close to its location, let’s say topologically k-...

In this work, a decentralized control strategy for tightly connected networked Lagrangian systems is designed. The main characteristics of the solution is that it allows to both control the motion of the handled object and the squeezing wrenches arising on it and this is achieved by resorting to a layered architecture. At the top layer, robots expl...

In this paper, we propose a distributed framework for large scale networks to attain control strategies requiring k-hop interactions. This research is motivated by the observation that in many practical applications and operational domains involving large-scale networks, such as environmental monitoring or traffic load balancing, agents may be requ...

This paper deals with the networked control of loosely or tightly connected cooperative manipulators in charge of achieving a cooperative task that is specified by means of proper task-oriented variables depending on the full state of the system. Since the full state is not known to robots, a two-layer architecture is designed. At the first level,...

In this paper, a general architecture for robotized cooperative drilling of hybrid metal/Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) aeronautic stacks is presented. The main objectives are to reduce non-added value operations as dismantling, deburring, cleaning and to improve hole quality by reducing the occurrence of delamination and inter-laminar crac...

This note presents a discrete-time distributed fault diagnosis and accommodation scheme for homogeneous teams of cooperative autonomous agents. Each agent estimates, via a local observer, the overall state of the team; such an estimate is used to compute both the control input to the agent itself and a set of residual vectors, sensitive to faults o...

The Stewart parallel mechanism is used in various applications due to its high load-carrying capacity, accuracy and stiffness, such as flight simulation, spaceship aligning, radar and satellite antenna orientation, rehabilitation applications, parallel machine tools. However, the use of such parallel robots is not widespread due to three factors: t...

The paper presents an architecture for distributed control of multi-robot systems with an integrated fault detection, isolation, and recovery strategy. The proposed solution is based on a distributed observer-controller schema where each robot, by communicating only with its direct neighbors, is able to estimate the overall state of the system; suc...

This paper describes a low-cost and flexible solution to automatize the drilling process in aircraft assembly lines by using anthropomorphic robots. In nowadays aircraft assembly lines, parts to be drilled (e.g., wing upper and lower covers, spars, ribs, fuselage panels, etc.) are either drilled by means of CNC machines or fixtures and jigs. In the...

A decentralized fault diagnosis and accommodation scheme in discrete time for teams of cooperative mobile robots is presented. Each vehicle estimates, via a local observer, the overall state of the team, which is used to compute its local control input and a set of residual vectors. Each residual is sensible to a fault occurring on a single teammat...

In this paper, we present a distributed fault detection and isolation (FDI) strategy for a team of networked robots that builds on a distributed controller–observer schema. Remarkably different from other works in literature, the proposed FDI approach makes each robot of the team able to detect and isolate faults occurring on other robots, even if...

The paper deals with the problem of decentralized fault detection, isolation and recovery for teams of networked robots. The proposed strategy is a combination of distributed and local approaches that allow the robots to deal with both recoverable and unrecoverable faults. A local adaptive fault observer is used to locally compensate recoverable fa...

The use of robots in the aircraft structural assembly is a challenge. The presence of human operators, auxiliary systems and industrial robots makes hybrid the dynamic behavior of a robotic cell in this context. Here, the focus is on the automated synthesis of a model for the sequencing of the activities of a robotic cell in the aircraft industry....

In this paper, an experimental investigation of the sampling/patrolling tasks by means of cooperative underwater vehicles is presented. Both in the case of sampling and patrolling, the mission consists in periodically visiting proper locations of the environment in order to estimate the field of interest or check for unexpected events. In previous...

The paper presents a controller-observer architecture with decentralized fault tolerance strategy for a networked team of autonomous robots. In the proposed architecture, each robot runs a decentralized observer to estimate the overall system state and a distributed control law for centroid and formation tracking control. The decentralized observer...

In this paper, a distributed controller-observer schema for tracking control of the centroid and of the relative formation of a multi-robot system with first-order dynamics is presented. Each robot of the team uses a distributed observer to estimate the overall system state and a motion control strategy for tracking control of time-varying centroid...

This paper presents the ongoing research activities of the Italian Interuniversity Center of Integrated Systems for the Marine Environment, ISME, in the field of harbour protection with autonomous marine vehicles. In particular, two different strategies have been developed in the recent years and have been extensively tested both in numerical simul...

This brief presents a decentralized coordinated strategy for multirobot patrolling missions. Patrolling is here interpreted within the framework of the sampling problem. To be applied in practice, several realistic constraints and the time/spatial variance of the information are explicitly considered. The proposed approach is well rooted in the con...

The paper presents a fault tolerance control strategy for distributed multi-robot systems. The proposed approach is based on a distributed controller-observer architecture that allows each robot to estimate the global system state using local communication. We derive residual dynamics that allows each robot to detect and isolate faults of other rob...

In this paper a two-layer decentralized framework for kinematic control of cooperative and collaborative multi-robot systems is developed. The motion of the system is specified at the workpiece level, by adopting a task-oriented formulation for cooperative tasks. The first layer computes the motion of the single arms in the system. In detail, the c...

This paper presents a distributed Fault Detection and Isolation (FDI) strategy, applied in conjunction with a distributed controller-observer schema, for a team of networked robots. Differently from other works in literature, the proposed FDI approach makes each robot of the team able to detect and isolate input faults of other robots even if not d...

In this paper, a discrete-time framework for diagnosis of faults of joint sensors, wrist-mounted force/torque sensors, and actuators of robotic manipulators is devised. It is assumed that redundant joint sensor measurements are available. Sensor measurements, together with the estimates computed by two isolation observers, are processed by a decisi...

The paper presents a decentralized observer for a class of multi-agent systems. The proposed observer allows each robot of the team to estimate the overall system state provided that the communication network is connected and that the motion control law is Lipschitz. In case of perfect measurements the observer error is proved to be exponentially c...

In this paper, a decentralized control strategy for networked multi-robot systems that allows the tracking of the team centroid and the relative formation is presented. The proposed solution consists of a distributed observer-controller scheme where, based only on local information, each robot estimates the collective state and tracks the two assig...

Coverage of a given area by means of coordinated autonomous robots is a mission required in several applications such as, for example, patrolling, monitoring or environmental sampling. From a mathematical perspective, this can often be modeled as the need to estimate a scalar field, eventually time varying as in the security applications. In this p...

This paper describes a decentralized coordination strategy for multi robot patrolling missions. To this effect, the theory of Gaussian Processes (usually used for estimation purposes) is suitably adapted to tackle the problem of harbour patrolling. The introduction of a time varying dependency in the probabilistic formulation (thus allowing for the...

This paper presents a control architecture for multi-robot systems. The proposed architecture has been developed in the framework of the Null-Space-based-Behavioral (NSB) control, a competitive-collaborative behavior-based control approach. The standard NSB statically determines a set of suitably defined elementary tasks (behaviors) and their prior...

In this paper a decentralized observer-controller scheme that allows to control the centroid and the formation of multi-agent systems is presented. For each agent the observer part allows to estimate the state of the overall system while the controller part is able to calculate the input control for the given agent based on the estimated state of t...

A coordination mechanism to achieve the sampling task of static or dynamic fields by means of a system composed by multiple mobile robots is addressed in this paper. The problem is the estimation of a scalar field. To this aim in a probabilistic framework a solution is proposed that takes into account several constraints. The attention is focused o...

In this technical note a decentralized controller-observer scheme for a multi-agent system is presented. The key idea is to develop, for each agent, an observer of the collective system's state and a motion controller. The observer is updated using only information from the agent itself and from its neighbors; the motion controller is designed in o...

In multiple robotic system, the deployment problem consists in the optimal placement of the robots within a given environment. In this paper, a fully decentralized strategy, based on the so called Null-Space-based Behavioral control is proposed. The chosen behavioral approach allows to handle the eventual presence of obstacles in the environment in...

In the industrial environment, several constraints affect the robot motion planning. These are imposed by manufacturing considerations, such as, e.g., to strictly follow a given path, or by physical constraints, such as, e.g., to avoid torque saturation. Among the others, limitation on the velocity, acceleration, and jerk at the joints is often req...

Path generation in 3 dimensions is addressed in this paper. In control of autonomous underwater or aerial vehicles, as well as manipulators' end-effector, it is required that the planned path exhibits specific characteristics of continuity up to the second, or third, order time derivatives. It is known, in fact, that closed loop performance benefit...