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We propose a robotic manipulation system that can pivot objects on a surface using vision, wrist force and tactile sensing. We aim to control the rotation of an object around the grip point of a parallel gripper by allowing rotational slip, while maintaining a desired wrist force profile. Our approach runs an end-effector position controller and a gripper width controller concurrently in a closed loop. The position controller maintains a desired force using vision and wrist force. The gripper controller uses tactile sensing to keep the grip firm enough to prevent translational slip, but loose enough to induce rotational slip. Our sensor-based control approach relies on matching a desired force profile derived from object dimensions and weight and vision-based monitoring of the object pose. The gripper controller uses tactile sensors to detect and prevent translational slip by tightening the grip when needed. Experimental results where the robot was tasked with rotating cuboid objects 90 degrees show that the multi-modal pivoting approach was able to rotate the objects without causing lift or slip, and was more energy-efficient compared to using a single sensor modality and to pick-and-place. While our work demonstrated the benefit of multi-modal sensing for the pivoting task, further work is needed to generalize our approach to any given object., Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables

We study human-robot handovers in a naturalistic collaboration scenario, where a mobile manipulator robot assists a person during a crafting session by providing and retrieving objects used for wooden piece assembly (functional activities) and painting (creative activities). We collect quantitative and qualitative data from 20 participants in a Wizard-of-Oz study, generating the Functional And Creative Tasks Human-Robot Collaboration dataset (the FACT HRC dataset), available to the research community. This work illustrates how social cues and task context inform the temporal-spatial coordination in human-robot handovers, and how human-robot collaboration is shaped by and in turn influences people's functional and creative activities., Comment: accepted at HRI 2023

In this paper, we reported the preparation of YFe$_{0.5}$Cr$_{0.5}$O$_3$ by the sol-gel method and studied its structure and M\"ossbauer spectrum at variable temperatures. X-ray diffraction(XRD) analysis exhibits that the sample has the orthorhombic structure with the Pnma space group, and the energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) analysis shows that the sample has Fe/Cr = 1:1, indicating that the sample is Fe half-doped YCrO$_3$. The hyperfine parameters of the M\"ossbauer spectrum at room temperature confirm that the characteristics of 57Fe in the sample were trivalent hexacoordinated high-spin(s=5/2), and the coexistence of doublet and the sextets at 250K indicate that the sample has superparamagnetic relaxation. The M\"ossbauer spectrum records the magnetic phase transition in the temperature range of 250K-300K.

In this paper, we present the implementation details of a Virtual Reality (VR)-based teleoperation interface for moving a robotic manipulator. We propose an iterative human-in-the-loop design where the user sets the next task-space waypoint for the robot's end effector and executes the action on the physical robot before setting the next waypoints. Information from the robot's surroundings is provided to the user in two forms: as a point cloud in 3D space and a video stream projected on a virtual wall. The feasibility of the selected end effector pose is communicated to the user by the color of the virtual end effector. The interface is demonstrated to successfully work for a pick and place scenario, however, our trials showed that the fluency of the interaction and the autonomy level of the system can be increased., Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, submitted to HORA 2022

The B-site disorder in the d5 - d3 system of perovskites has been analyzed with molecular field theory and Monte Carlo method. The model is applicable to RFe1-pCrpO3 at any p value. When the saturation magnetization MS and phase transition temperature TP are known, a model can be built to calculate the order or disorder distribution of lattice B-sites. We analyze the case that the Fe-Cr superexchange is antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic coupling respectively. The simulation result shows that the theoretical calculation formula is suitable for the calculation of different B-site distribution. Through the simulation, we find that when the x and y are large, the system will appear obvious long-range order. The DM interaction has a certain influence on the saturation magnetization. Via calculation, we found that the distribution states of Fe and Cr do not always conform to the uniform distribution but rather exhibit an effect that reduces the Fe-Fe clustering. The establishment of this model offers an explanation for several previously contentious issues, e.g., what is the phase transition temperature range of double perovskite, and why the different phase transition temperatures with the same doping proportion. It provides theoretical guidance for the design of functional materials with an arbitrary phase transition temperature.

The Weyl semimetal WTe$_{2}$ has shown several correlated electronic behaviors, such as the quantum spin Hall effect, superconductivity, ferroelectricity, and a possible exciton insulator state, all of which can be tuned by various physical and chemical approaches. Here, we discover a new electronic phase in WTe$_{2}$ induced by lithium intercalation. The new phase exhibits an increasing resistivity with decreasing temperature and its carrier density is almost two orders of magnitude lower than the carrier density of the semi-metallic T$_{d}$ phase, probed by in situ Hall measurements as a function of lithium intercalation. Our theoretical calculations predict the new lithiated phase to be a charge density wave (CDW) phase with a bandgap of ~ 0.14 eV, in good agreement with the in situ transport data. The new phase is structurally distinct from the initial T$_{d}$ phase, characterized by polarization angle-dependent Raman spectroscopy, and large lattice distortions close to 6 % are predicted in the new phase. Thus, we report the first experimental evidence of CDW in T$_{d}$-WTe$_{2}$, projecting WTe$_{2}$ as a new playground for studying the interplay between CDW and superconductivity. Our finding of a new gapped phase in a two-dimensional (2D) semi-metal also demonstrates electrochemical intercalation as a powerful tuning knob for modulating electron density and phase stability in 2D materials., Comment: 6 figures

Owing to the small energy differences between its polymorphs, MoTe2 can access a full spectrum of electronic states, from the 2H semiconducting state to the 1T semimetallic state, and from the Td Weyl semimetallic state to the superconducting state in the 1T and Td phase at low temperature. Thus, it is a model system for phase transformation studies as well as quantum phenomena such as the quantum spin Hall effect and topological superconductivity. Careful studies of MoTe2 and its potential applications require large area MoTe2 thin films with high crystallinity and thickness control. Here, we present cm2 scale synthesis of 2H MoTe2 thin films with layer control and large grains that span several microns. Layer control is achieved by controlling the initial thickness of the precursor MoOx thin films, which are deposited on sapphire substrates by atomic layer deposition and subsequently tellurized. Despite the van der Waals epitaxy, the precursor-substrate interface is found to critically determine the uniformity in thickness and grain size of the resulting MoTe2 films: MoTe2 grown on sapphire show uniform films while MoTe2 grown on amorphous SiO2 substrates form islands. This synthesis strategy decouples the layer control from the variabilities of growth conditions for robust growth results, and is applicable to grow other transition metal dichalcogenides with layer control., Comment: 6 figure