@conference{sung2017self,

title = {Self-folded soft robotic structures with controllable joints},

author = {Cynthia Sung and Rhea Lin and Shuhei Miyashita and Sehyuk Yim and Sangbae Kim and Daniela Rus},

doi = {10.1109/ICRA.2017.7989072},

year  = {2017},

date = {2017-05-29},

urldate = {2017-05-29},

booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)},

pages = {580-587},

abstract = {This paper describes additive self-folding, an origami-inspired rapid fabrication approach for creating actuatable compliant structures. Recent work in 3-D printing and other rapid fabrication processes have mostly focused on rigid objects or objects that can achieve small deformations. In contrast, soft robots often require elastic materials and large amounts of movement. Additive self-folding is a process that involves cutting slices of a 3-D object in a long strip and then pleat folding them into a likeness of the original model. The zigzag pattern for folding enables large bending movements that can be actuated and controlled. Gaps between slices in the folded model can be designed to provide larger deformations or higher shape accuracy. We advance existing planar fabrication and self-folding techniques to automate the fabrication process, enabling highly compliant structures with complex 3-D geometries to be designed and fabricated within a few hours. We describe this process in this paper and provide algorithms for converting 3-D meshes into additive self-folding designs. The designs can be rapidly instrumented for global control using magnetic fields or tendon-driven for local bending. We also describe how the resulting structures can be modeled and their responses to tendon-driven control predicted. We test our design and fabrication methods on three models (a bunny, a tuna fish, and a starfish) and demonstrate the method's potential for actuation by actuating the tuna fish and starfish models using tendons and magnetic control.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {conference}

}

@conference{spielberg2017functional,

title = {Functional co-optimization of articulated robots},

author = {Andrew Spielberg and Brandon Araki and Cynthia Sung and Russ Tedrake and Daniela Rus},

doi = {10.1109/ICRA.2017.7989587},

year  = {2017},

date = {2017-05-29},

urldate = {2017-05-29},

booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)},

pages = {5035-5042},

abstract = {We present parametric trajectory optimization, a method for simultaneously computing physical parameters, actuation requirements, and robot motions for more efficient robot designs. In this scheme, robot dimensions, masses, and other physical parameters are solved for concurrently with traditional motion planning variables, including dynamically consistent robot states, actuation inputs, and contact forces. Our method requires minimal user domain knowledge, requiring only a coarse guess of the target robot configuration sequence and a parameterized robot topology as input. We demonstrate our results on four simulated robots, one of which we physically fabricated in order to demonstrate physical consistency. We demonstrate that by optimizing robot body parameters alongside robot trajectories, motion planning problems which would otherwise be infeasible can be made feasible, and actuation requirements can be significantly reduced.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {conference}

}

@conference{sung2015automated,

title = {Automated fabrication of foldable robots using thick materials},

author = {Cynthia Sung and Daniela Rus},

doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-51532-8_16},

year  = {2015},

date = {2015-09-09},

booktitle = {International Symposium on Robotics Research},

pages = {253-266},

abstract = {Designing complex machines such as robots often requires multiple iterations of design and prototyping. Folding has recently emerged as a method to both simplify fabrication and accelerate assembly of such machines. However, the robots so far produced by folding have often been made of thin, flexible materials that limit their size and strength. We introduce a folding-based fabrication process that uses thick materials layered with flexible film to enable folding while maintaining high stiffness in the folded structure. We use this process to fabricate multiple solid bodies, as well as two hexapods, one of which can carry up to 2.50 kg payloads. Each folded structure took less than 3 h to construct. Our results indicate that folding using thick materials can be a viable method for rapidly fabricating and prototyping larger and sturdier robots.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {conference}

}

@conference{sung2015reconfiguration,

title = {Reconfiguration planning for pivoting cube modular robots},

author = {Cynthia Sung and James Bern and James Romanishin and Daniela Rus},

doi = {10.1109/ICRA.2015.7139451},

year  = {2015},

date = {2015-05-26},

booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)},

pages = {1933-1940},

abstract = {In this paper, we present algorithms for self-reconfiguration of modular robots that move by pivoting. The modules are cubes that can pivot about their edges along the x̂, ŷ, or ẑ axes to move on a 3-dimensional substrate. This is a different model from prior work, which usually considers modules that slide along their faces. We analyze the pivoting cube model and give sufficient conditions for reconfiguration to be feasible. In particular, we show that if an initial configuration does not contain any of three subconfigurations, which we call rules, then it can reconfigure into a line. We provide provably correct algorithms for reconfiguration for both 2-D and 3-D systems, and we verify our algorithms via simulation on randomly generated 2-D and 3-D configurations.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {conference}

}

@conference{miyashita2015untethered,

title = {An untethered miniature origami robot that self-folds, walks, swims, and degrades},

author = {Shuhei Miyashita and Steven Guitron and Marvin Ludersdorfer and Cynthia Sung and Daniela Rus},

doi = {10.1109/ICRA.2015.7139386},

year  = {2015},

date = {2015-05-26},

booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)},

pages = {1490-1496},

publisher = {IEEE},

abstract = {A miniature robotic device that can fold-up on the spot, accomplish tasks, and disappear by degradation into the environment promises a range of medical applications but has so far been a challenge in engineering. This work presents a sheet that can self-fold into a functional 3D robot, actuate immediately for untethered walking and swimming, and subsequently dissolve in liquid. The developed sheet weighs 0.31 g, spans 1.7 cm square in size, features a cubic neodymium magnet, and can be thermally activated to self-fold. Since the robot has asymmetric body balance along the sagittal axis, the robot can walk at a speed of 3.8 body-length/s being remotely controlled by an alternating external magnetic field. We further show that the robot is capable of conducting basic tasks and behaviors, including swimming, delivering/carrying blocks, climbing a slope, and digging. The developed models include an acetone-degradable version, which allows the entire robot's body to vanish in a liquid. We thus experimentally demonstrate the complete life cycle of our robot: self-folding, actuation, and degrading.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {conference}

}

@conference{Sung2014,

title = {Foldable joints for foldable robots},

author = {Cynthia Sung and Daniela Rus},

doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-23778-7_28},

year  = {2014},

date = {2014-06-15},

booktitle = {International Symposium on Experimental Robotics (ISER)},

pages = {421-433},

abstract = {Print-and-fold approaches to robot fabrication allow entire

robots to be produced using a single uniform process: fabricating them

in-plane and then folding them into their 3-D forms. Current efforts to

design print-and-fold robots have been limited by a lack of understanding

of what motions can be achieved by folding. In this paper, we introduce

fold patterns for three basic joints commonly used in robots, and we

show how the patterns can be changed to accommodate user-specified

ranges of motion. The joints are composed with each other to produce

joints with higher degrees of freedom and with rigid bodies to produce

entire foldable linkage mechanisms. We have folded our basic joints and

composed mechanisms, and they achieve the expected kinematics. We

have also printed control circuitry on and attached actuators directly

to three of our designs, demonstrating that it possible to print and fold

robots with many different kinematics.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {conference}

}

@conference{feldman2013idiary,

title = {iDiary: From GPS signals to a text-searchable diary},

author = {Dan Feldman and Andrew Sugaya and Cynthia Sung and Daniela Rus},

doi = {10.1145/2517351.2517366},

year  = {2013},

date = {2013-11-11},

booktitle = {11th ACM Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (SenSys)},

pages = {6},

publisher = {ACM},

abstract = {This paper describes a system that takes as input GPS data streams generated by users' phones and creates a searchable database of locations and activities. The system is called iDiary and turns large GPS signals collected from smartphones into textual descriptions of the trajectories. The system features a user interface similar to Google Search that allows users to type text queries on their activities (e.g., "Where did I buy books?") and receive textual answers based on their GPS signals.



iDiary uses novel algorithms for semantic compression (known as coresets) and trajectory clustering of massive GPS signals in parallel to compute the critical locations of a user. Using an external database, we then map these locations to textual descriptions and activities so that we can apply text mining techniques on the resulting data (e.g. LSA or transportation mode recognition).



We provide experimental results for both the system and algorithms and compare them to existing commercial and academic state-of-the-art. This is the first GPS system that enables text-searchable activities from GPS data.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {conference}

}

@conference{sung2013joining,

title = {Joining unfoldings of 3-D surfaces},

author = {Cynthia Sung and Erik D. Demaine and Martin L. Demaine and Daniela Rus},

doi = {10.1115/DETC2013-12692},

year  = {2013},

date = {2013-08-04},

booktitle = {ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (IDETC/CIE)},

pages = {DETC2013-12692},

publisher = {ASME},

abstract = {Origami-based design methods enable complex devices to be fabricated quickly in plane and then folded into their final 3-D shapes. So far, these folded structures have been designed manually. This paper presents a geometric approach to automatic composition of folded surfaces, which will allow existing designs to be combined and complex functionality to be produced with minimal human input. We show that given two surfaces in 3-D and their 2-D unfoldings, a surface consisting of the two originals joined along an arbitrary edge can always be achieved by connecting the two original unfoldings with some additional linking material, and we provide an algorithm to generate this composite unfolding. The algorithm is verified using various surfaces, as well as a walking and gripping robot design.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {conference}

}

@conference{sung2013improving,

title = {Improving the performance of multi-robot systems by task switching},

author = {Cynthia Sung and Nora Ayanian and Daniela Rus},

doi = {10.1109/ICRA.2013.6630993},

year  = {2013},

date = {2013-05-06},

booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)},

pages = {2999-3006},

publisher = {IEEE},

abstract = {We consider the problem of task assignment for a multi-robot system where each robot must attend to one or more queues of tasks. We assume that individual robots have no knowledge of tasks in the environment that are not in their queue. Robots in communication with each other may share information about active tasks and exchange queues to achieve lower cost for the system. We show that allowing this kind of task switching causes tasks to be completed more efficiently. In addition, we present conditions under which queues can be guaranteed to make progress, and we support these claims with simulation and experimental results. This work has potential applications in manufacturing, environmental exploration, and pickup-delivery tasks.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {conference}

}

@conference{feldman2012single,

title = {The single pixel GPS: Learning big data signals from tiny coresets},

author = {Dan Feldman and Cynthia Sung and Daniela Rus},

doi = {10.1145/2424321.2424325},

year  = {2012},

date = {2012-11-06},

booktitle = {20th ACM SIGSPATIAL International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems (GIS 2012)},

pages = {23-32},

publisher = {ACM},

abstract = {We present algorithms for simplifying and clustering patterns from sensors such as GPS, LiDAR, and other devices that can produce high-dimensional signals. The algorithms are suitable for handling very large (e.g. terabytes) streaming data and can be run in parallel on networks or clouds. Applications include compression, denoising, activity recognition, road matching, and map generation.



We encode these problems as (k, m)-segment mean problems. Formally, we provide (1 + ε)-approximations to the k-segment and (k, m)-segment mean of a d-dimensional discrete-time signal. The k-segment mean is a k-piecewise linear function that minimizes the regression distance to the signal. The (k,m)-segment mean has an additional constraint that the projection of the k segments on Rd consists of only m ≤ k segments. Existing algorithms for these problems take O(kn2) and nO(mk) time respectively and O(kn2) space, where n is the length of the signal.



Our main tool is a new coreset for discrete-time signals. The coreset is a smart compression of the input signal that allows computation of a (1 + ε)-approximation to the k-segment or (k,m)-segment mean in O(n log n) time for arbitrary constants ε,k, and m. We use coresets to obtain a parallel algorithm that scans the signal in one pass, using space and update time per point that is polynomial in log n. We provide empirical evaluations of the quality of our coreset and experimental results that show how our coreset boosts both inefficient optimal algorithms and existing heuristics. We demonstrate our results for extracting signals from GPS traces. However, the results are more general and applicable to other types of sensors.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {conference}

}

@conference{sung2012trajectory,

title = {Trajectory clustering for motion prediction},

author = {Cynthia Sung and Dan Feldman and Daniela Rus},

doi = {10.1109/IROS.2012.6386017},

year  = {2012},

date = {2012-10-07},

booktitle = {IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)},

pages = {1547-1552},

publisher = {IEEE},

abstract = {We investigate a data-driven approach to robotic path planning and analyze its performance in the context of interception tasks. Trajectories of moving objects often contain repeated patterns of motion, and learning those patterns can yield interception paths that succeed more often. We therefore propose an original trajectory clustering algorithm for extracting motion patterns from trajectory data and demonstrate its effectiveness over the more common clustering approach of using k-means. We use the results to build a Hidden Markov Model of a target's motion and predict movement. Our simulations show that these predictions lead to more effective interception. The results of this work have potential applications in coordination of multi-robot systems, tracking and surveillance tasks, and dynamic obstacle avoidance.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {conference}

}