Michael C. Welle

Robotics and Representation Learning

I'm the founder and CEO of INCAR Robotics AB, a robotics startup focusing on teleoperation, telepresence, and skill learning. Before starting INCAR Robotics, I was a Postdoctoral Researcher working with Danica Kragic, at the Robotics, Perception and Learning Lab (RPL), EECS, at KTH in Stockholm, Sweden. Where I also did my PhD under Danica Kragics supervission as well as co-supervision of Anastasiia Varava, and Hang Yin.

I'm working on learning representations for rigid and deformable objects manipulation. My work includes partial caging as well as working with highly deformable objects (clothing).

My CV can be found here (not neccesary up to date).

Recent Work

Towards Safe Reinforcement Learning with Reduced Conservativeness: A Case Study on Drone Flight Control
Loizos Hadjiloizou, Michael C. Welle, Hang Yin, Danica Kragic

Abstract Incorporating formal methods into reinforcement learning (RL) has the potential to result in the best of both worlds, combining the robustness of formal guarantees with the adaptability and learning capabilities of RL, though careful design is needed to balance safety and exploration. In his work, we propose a framework to mitigate this loss of exploration while still allowing for the safety of the system to be ensured. Specifically, we introduce a less restrictive method that can reduce the conservativeness of formal methods by refining a disturbance model using online collected data and it evaluates the safety of a learning-based controller, using computationally efficient zonotopic reachability analysis for the safety analysis to facilitate a real-time implementation. We validate the framework in a real-world drone flight through a canyon, where the drone is subjected to unknown external disturbances and the framework is tasked with learning those disturbances online and adjusting the safety guarantees accordingly. The results show that the framework enables a less restrictive online training of learning-based controllers without compromising the safety of the system.

Submitted to ICRA 2024

Publications

Journal Papers:


Transfer learning in robotics: An upcoming breakthrough? A review of promises and challenges

Noémie Jaquier*, Michael C. Welle*, Andrej Gams, Kunpeng Yao, Bernardo Fichera, Aude Billard, Aleš Ude, Tamim Asfour, Danica Kragic
Published in The International Journal of Robotics Research, 2024

Unfolding the Literature: A Review of Robotic Cloth Manipulation

Alberta Longhini, Yufei Wang, Irene Garcia-Camacho, David Blanco-Mulero, Marco Moletta, Michael Welle, Guillem Alenyà, Hang Yin, Zackory Erickson, David Held, Júlia Borràs, Danica Kragic
Published in Annual Review of Control, Robotics, and Autonomous Systems, 2024

AdaFold: Adapting Folding Trajectories of Cloths via Feedback-Loop Manipulation

Alberta Longhini, Michael C. Welle, Zackory Erickson, Danica Kragic
Published in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2024

Enabling Visual Action Planning for Object Manipulation through Latent Space Roadmap

Martina Lippi*, Petra Poklukar*, Michael C. Welle*, Anastasia Varava, Hang Yin, Alessandro Marino, and Danica Kragic
Puplished in Transactions on Robotics (TRO), 2022

Partial Caging: A Clearance-Based Definition, Datasets and Deep Learning

Michael Welle, Anastasiia Varava, Jeffrey Mahler, Ken Goldberg, Danica Kragic, and Florian T. Pokorny
Published in Autonomous Robots, Special Issue Topological Methods in Robotics 2021

Benchmarking Bimanual Cloth Manipulation

Irene Garcia-Camacho*, Martina Lippi*, Michael C. Welle, Hang Yin, Rika Antonova, Anastasiia Varava, Júlia Borràs, Carme Torras, Alessandro Marino, Guillem Alenyà, Danica Kragic
Puplished in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters 5.2 (2020)

From Visual Understanding to Complex Object Manipulation

Judith Butepage, Silvia Cruciani, Mia Kokic, Michael Welle, and Danica Kragic
Published in Annual Review of Control, Robotics, and Autonomous Systems (2019)


Conference Papers:


Puppeteer Your Robot: Augmented Reality Leader-Follower Teleoperation

Jonne Van Haastregt*, Michael C. Welle*, Yuchong Zhang, Danica Kragic
Puplished in IEEE-RAS 23rd International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids), 2024

Low-Cost Teleoperation with Haptic Feedback through Vision-based Tactile Sensors for Rigid and Soft Object Manipulation

Martina Lippi*; Michael C. Welle*; Maciej K. Wozniak; Andrea Gasparri; Danica Kragic
Puplished in 33rd IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (ROMAN), 2024

Visual Action Planning with Multiple Heterogeneous Agents

Martina Lippi*; Michael C. Welle*; Marco Moletta; Alessandro Marino; Andrea Gasparri; Danica Kragic
Puplished in 33rd IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (ROMAN), 2024

A Robotic Skill Learning System Built Upon Diffusion Policies and Foundation Models

Nils Ingelhag*; Jesper Munkeby*; Jonne van Haastregt*; Anastasia Varava; Michael C. Welle; Danica Kragic
Puplished in 33rd IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (ROMAN), 2024

Ensemble Latent Space Roadmap for Improved Robustness in Visual Action Planning

Martina Lippi*; Michael C. Welle*; Andrea Gasparri; Danica Kragic
Puplished in IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2024

Standardization of Cloth Objects and its Relevance in Robotic Manipulation

Irene Garcia-Camacho; Alberta Longhini; Michael Welle; Guillem Alenyà; Danica Kragic; Júlia Borràs
Puplished in IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2024

A Virtual Reality Framework for Human-Robot Collaboration in Cloth Folding

Marco Moletta; Maciej K. Wozniak; Michael C. Welle; Danica Kragic
Puplished in IEEE-RAS 22nd International Conference on Humanoid Robots (Humanoids) (CASE), 2023

Enabling Robot Manipulation of Soft and Rigid Objects with Vision-based Tactile Sensors

Michael C. Welle; Martina Lippi; Haofei Lu; Jens Lundell; Andrea Gasparri; Danica Kragic
Puplished in IEEE 19th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), 2023

EDO-Net: Learning Elastic Properties of Deformable Objects from Graph Dynamics

Alberta Longhini, Marco Moletta, Alfredo Reichlin, Michael C Welle, David Held, Zackory Erickson, Danica Kragic
Puplished in International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2023

Elastic Context: Encoding Elasticity for Data-driven Models of Textiles

Alberta Longhini, Marco Moletta, Alfredo Reichlin, Michael C Welle, Alexander Kravberg, Yufei Wang, David Held, Zackory Erickson, Danica Kragic
Puplished inInternational Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2023

Understanding Raman Spectral Based Classifications with Convolutional Neural Networks Using Practical Examples of Fungal Spores and Carotenoid-Pigmented Microorganisms

Thomas J. Tewes, Michael C. Welle, Bernd T. Hetjens, Kevin Saruni Tipatet, Svyatoslav Pavlov, Frank Platte, Dirk P. Bockmühl
Puplished in AI, 2023

Augment-Connect-Explore: a Paradigm for Visual Action Planning with Data Scarcity

Martina Lippi*, Michael C. Welle*, Petra Poklukar, Alessandro Marino and Danica Kragic
Puplished in International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS2022)

Embedding Koopman Optimal Control in Robot Policy Learning

Hang Yin, Michael C. Welle and Danica Kragic
Puplished in International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS2022)

Comparing Reconstruction- and Contrastive-based Models for Visual Task Planning

Constantinos Chamzas*, Martina Lippi*, Michael C. Welle*, Anastasia Varava, Lydia E. Kavraki, and Danica Kragic
Puplished in International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS2022)

Textile Taxonomy and Classification Using Pulling and Twisting

Alberta Longhini, Michael C. Welle, Ioanna Mitsioni and Danica Kragic
Accepted in International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS2021)

Learning Task Constraints in Visual-Action Planning from Demonstrations

Francesco Esposito, Christian Pek, Michael C. Welle and Danica Kragic
Puplished in IEEE Int. Conf. on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (ROMAN2021)

Latent Space Roadmap for Visual Action Planning of Deformable and Rigid Object Manipulation

Martina Lippi*, Petra Poklukar*, Michael C. Welle*, Anastasiia Varava, Hang Yin, Alessandro Marino, and Danica Kragic
Puplished in International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS2020)

Fashion Landmark Detection and Category Classification for Robotics

Thomas Ziegler, Judith Butepage, Michael C. Welle, Anastasiia Varava, Tonci Novkovic and Danica Kragic
Published in IEEE International Conference on Autonomous Robot Systems and Competitions (ICARSC2020)

Partial Caging: A Clearance-Based Definition and Deep Learning

Anastasiia Varava*, Michael Welle*, Jeffrey Mahler, Ken Goldberg, Danica Kragic, and Florian T. Pokorny
Published in International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2019)

On the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Autonomous Object Modeling

Michael Welle, Ludvig Ericson, Rares Ambrus, Patric Jensfelt
Published in European Conference on Mobile Robots (ECMR2017)



Workshops and Projects

Organisation:

4th Workshop on Representing and Manipulating Deformable Objects @ ICRA2023

Michael C. Welle*, Martina Lippi*, Fangyi Zhang*, Lawrence Yunliang Chen*, Alberta Longhini, Danica Kragic, Daniel Seita*, David Held, Peter Corke
Workshop held at ICRA2024

Transferability in Robotics Workshop @ ICRA2023

Michael C. Welle, Andrej Gams, Ahalya Prabhakar,Rainer Kartmann, Daniel Leidner, Danica Kragic
Workshop held at ICRA2023

3nd Workshop on Representing and Manipulating Deformable Objects @ ICRA2023

Martina Lippi*, Daniel Seita*, Michael C. Welle*, Fangyi Zhang*, Hang Yin, Danica Kragic, Alessandro Marino, David Held, Peter Corke
Workshop held at ICRA2023

2nd Workshop on Representing and Manipulating Deformable Objects @ ICRA2022

Martina Lippi*, Daniel Seita*, Michael C. Welle*, Hang Yin, Danica Kragic, David Held, Yiannis Karayiannidis
Workshop held at ICRA2022

Representing and Manipulating Deformable Objects Workshop @ ICRA2021

Martina Lippi*, Michael C. Welle*, Anastasiia Varava*, Hang Yin, Rika Antonova, Florian T. Pokorny, Danica Kragic, Yiannis Karayiannidis, Ville Kyrki, Alessandro Marino, Julia Borras, Guillem Alenya, Carme Torras
Workshop held at ICRA2021



Contributions:

Quest2ROS: An App to Facilitate Teleoperating Robots

Michael C. Welle*, Nils Ingelhag*, Martina Lippi, Maciej Wozniak, Andrea Gasparri, Danica Kragic
7th International Workshop on Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed-Reality for Human-Robot Interactions

Towards understanding the modality gap in CLIP

Peiyang Shi, Michael C. Welle, Mårten Björkman, Danica Kragic
ICLR Workshop on Multimodal Representation Learning: Perks and Pitfalls. 2023

Batch Curation for Unsupervised Contrastive Representation Learning

Michael C. Welle*, Petra Poklukar*, and Danica Kragic
Workshop on Self-Supervised Learning for Reasoning and Perception, Workshop at International Conference on Machine Learning 2021

State Representations in Robotics: Identifying Relevant Factors of Variation using Weak Supervision

Constantinos Chamzas*, Martina Lippi*, Michael C. Welle*, Anastasiia Varava, Lydia Kavraki, and Alessandro Marino, and Danica Kragic
NeurIPS 2020 Workshop on Robot Learning

Latent Space Roadmap for Visual Action Planning

Martina Lippi*, Petra Poklukar*, Michael C. Welle*, Anastasiia Varava, Hang Yin, Alessandro Marino, and Danica Kragic
RSS 2020 Workshop - Visual Learning and Reasoning for Robotic Manipulation

Analyzing Representations through Interventions

Petra Poklukar*, Michael C. Welle*, Anastasiia Varava and Danica Kragic
32nd annual workshop of the Swedish Artificial Intelligence Society (SAIS)

Projects:

Baxter plays Tic-Tac-Toe while shopping with Simtrack

Summer Internship at HKUST, HongKong, Supervisors: Michael Wang, Hang Kaiyu

Talks

Talking Robotics #40

27.04.2022 Talk information

Ph.D. defense

(As the official defense recording had technical difficulties it is a test recording of my thesis presentation)

Thesis title: Learning structured Representations for ridgid and deformable Object Manipulation

Teaching

PhD student Supervision

Co-supervising Mohammed Al-Jaff - 12/2023 - Ongoing

Co-supervising Marco Moletta - 03/2022 - Ongoing

Co-supervising Alberta Longhini - 02/2022 - Ongoing

Co-supervising Peiyang "Yonk" Shi - 04/2022 - 12/2023

Master Thesis Supervision

Ludwig Kristoffersson - Evaluating Techniques for Building AI Assistants in a Specialised Domain: Comparing RAG Techniques and LLMs in Custom Built Assistant for the Canvas LMS at KTH

Nils Ingelhag - Mimicking the human grasp with robotic grippers

Mohammed Al-Jaff - Messing With The Gap: On The Modality Gap Phenomenon In Multimodal Contrastive Representation Learning

Ioannis Iakovidis - Using Satellite Images And Self-supervised Deep Learning To Detect Water Hidden Under Vegetation

Erik Zetterström - Unsupervised Domain Adaptation for Regressive Annotation: Using Domain-Adversarial Training on Eye Image Data for Pupil Detection

Tommy Walling; Structural Comparison of Data Representations Obtained from Deep Learning Models

David Norrman; Impact of Semantic Segmentation on OOD Detection Performance for VAEs and Normalizing Flow Models

Samuel Norling; Probabilistic Forecasting through Reformer Conditioned Normalizing Flows

Simon Westberg; Investigating the Learning Behavior of Generative Adversarial Networks

Joakim Dahl; Analysis of the effect of Latent Dimensions on Disentagement in Variational Autoencoders

Alberta Longhini; Fabric Material Classification by Combining Force and Vision;

Nik Vaessen; Training Multi-Task Deep Neural Networks with Disjoint Datasets

Georgios Deligiorgis; Context-Aware Graph Convolutional Network with Multi-Clusters Mini-Batch for Link Prediction

Ching-An Wu; Investigation of Different Observation and Action Spaces for Reinforcement Learning on Reaching Tasks

Courses

Fall 2020: Teacher in Foundational Models In Robotics, Perception, and Decision Making

Fall 2021: TA in Introduction to Robotics (Msc)

Fall 2020: TA in Introduction to Robotics (Msc)

Fall 2020: Teacher in Project Course in Data Science (Msc)

Fall 2019: TA in Introduction to Robotics (Msc)

Fall 2019: Teacher in Project Course in Data Science (Msc)

Fall 2018: TA in Introduction to Robotics (Msc)

Fall 2018: TA in Artificial Intelligence (Msc)

Fall 2018: Teacher in Project Course in Data Science (Msc)

Fall 2017: TA in Artificial Intelligence (Msc)

Fall 2016: TA in Artificial Intelligence (Msc)