As part of the Samsung Seminar Series, hosted in partnership with the NCRN, Dr. Francois Hogan presented his research at McGill University, February 20th, 2020. 

Abstract:

We, as humans, have a remarkable ability to react to unexpected events in day-to-day manipulation tasks. This is in stark contrast to robotic systems that predominantly operate in an open-loop fashion and lack our reactive capabilities. In this talk, I will discuss my work on closing the loop in robotic manipulation, moving towards robots that can better perceive their environment and react to unforeseen situations. I will begin the talk by introducing team MIT-Princeton's award-winning pick-and-place robotic system at the Amazon Robotics Challenge and discuss the limitations associated with its open-loop design. I will then motivate the necessity of reactivity to improve the robustness of robotic manipulation systems as well as long term planning to push the boundaries of dexterous robotic skills. Finally, I will describe recent efforts on developing a framework for tactile dexterity, which leverages tactile feedback for dexterous manipulation using a dual-arm manipulation robotic system.