Project description
Improving robot safety and efficiency through globally optimal data-driven algorithms
Robots can help address societal challenges by extending capabilities beyond human limits. However, algorithmic approaches for robotics based on first principles often require extensive tuning and heuristics, while more recent deep-learned methods require prohibitive amounts of data and suffer from generalisation issues. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the LiftMeUp project will develop an easy-to-use framework for robots to combine first-principles approaches with the data-driven paradigm through the lens of globally optimal solvers. In doing so, it aims to offer a transparent, sample-efficient alternative to resource-intensive deep learning methods.
Objective
Robots bear the potential to help solve the world’s pressing problems by enabling and scaling up operations beyond human capacities. To successfully manipulate objects and perform reliable locomotion, robots require adequate models and solvers. Traditionally, physics-based models and iterative solvers are used, and obtaining reliable solutions requires significant effort in model tuning and heuristics for good convergence. LiftMeUp’s objective is to combine data-driven modeling with globally optimal solvers in a unique way to create an easy-to-use framework for the life-long operation of robots in challenging tasks. The result is a transparent, sample-efficient alternative to the less interpretable and resource-hungry deep-learning solutions for robotics. Furthermore, LiftMeUp builds on providing certifiably optimal methods with important consequences for safety and efficiency, as opposed to deep learning and local solvers, where different initializations can lead to entirely different solutions.
LiftMeUp is carried out at WILLOW, Inria Paris, known for cutting-edge control and locomotion research, and has three stages: first, combining concepts from Koopman theory, polynomial optimization, and kernel methods, lifting functions are inferred from data and integrated into globally optimal methods for state estimation and control. Second, different models are optimally combined, leading to a modular framework that can be incrementally updated online. Lastly, these novel algorithms are implemented on hardware to solve real-world locomotion and dexterous manipulation tasks.
This framework will have an important scientific impact by creating novel connections between global optimization and machine learning, enabling the use of principled over heuristic solvers in a broad range of applications in robotics and beyond. It will entail energy and time savings for the economy and using sample-efficient and transparent models will democratize technology and build trust.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences computer and information sciences artificial intelligence machine learning deep learning
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01
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78153 Le Chesnay Cedex
France
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