A method of programless assembly of a device using a robotic cell comprising calibrating a robotic cell for generating a product model, the robotic cell including an end-of-arm camera and utilizing the robotic cell to generate the product model of the device for assembly. The method in one embodiment further comprises validating the product model using a partial assembly method and making the product model available for use by robotic cells.

A manipulation controller is provided for reorienting an object by a manipulator of a robotic system. The manipulation controller includes an interface controller configured to acquire measurement data from sensors arranged on the robotic system, at least one processor, and a memory configured to store a computer-implemented method. The instructions of the method include acquiring measurement data from vision sensors and force sensors arranged on the robotic system, determining an input-output relation for the object based on a nonlinear static model representing input-output relationships between contact forces and movements of the object on the workbench, representing interaction between the object and the manipulator using complementarity constraints to capture the contact state between the object and the manipulator, formulating a representation for frictional stability of the object based on the non-linear static model at the external contacts with the workbench; formulating a bilevel optimization problem so as to maximize the frictional stability over a position trajectory of the object being manipulated on the workbench, estimating uncertainty value in physical parameters to be compensated by performing the bilevel optimization problem, solving the bilevel optimization problem using the non-linear optimization solver and generating control data with respect to a sequence of the contact forces being applied to the object by using the manipulator.

A method for controlling a robotic manipulator according to a task comprises accepting a feedback signal including a sequence of multi-modal observations of a state of execution of the task. The multi-modal observations are processed with a neural network having a self-attention module with a hierarchically conditioned output to produce a skill of the robotic manipulator and an action conditioned on the skill. The neural network is trained in a supervised manner with demonstration data to produce a sequence of skills and a corresponding sequence of actions for the actuators of the robotic manipulator to perform the task. The method further comprises determining one or more control commands for the one or more actuators based on the produced action and submitting the one or more control commands to the one or more actuators causing a change of the state of execution of the task.