Cybernetic Hardware Interface for Robotic Operations & Networking
CHIRON is a robot motor cortex that translates high-level commands into physically intelligent motion. It measures its own gripper, reasons about object geometry, plans collision-free paths, and executes pick-and-place sequences with automatic failure recovery.
The entire system runs in MuJoCo simulation at ~500 Hz with a live 3D viewer and browser dashboard. No external planning library required.
Pick-and-place with custom placement, stacking, and automatic stack decomposition. CHIRON detects the blue sphere blocking the cylinder and clears it autonomously before executing the command.
A pick-and-place command triggers a multi-stage intelligent pipeline: the gripper self-measures from the robot model, a cross-section profiler finds the optimal grip point on the target object, the scene analyzer computes collision-free transit corridors accounting for the full gripper envelope, and a 9-phase sequencer executes the motion with grasp verification, adaptive height selection, and automatic retry.
If the target is buried in a stack, CHIRON decomposes the task and clears obstructing objects first. One user command decomposes into multiple intelligent sub-steps.
CHIRON inspects the MuJoCo model at startup and measures its own hand: finger offset from the hand body, pad contact height, pad bottom extent, maximum and minimum opening, and actuator range. Every dimension is read from the model geometry.
This means swapping the robot model (Franka Panda → SO-ARM 101 → any MJCF arm) requires zero code changes. CHIRON re-measures itself and adapts all grasp computations to the new gripper.
Given an object's shape and dimensions (from BROTEUS in production, from MuJoCo ground truth in simulation), the grasp computer finds the optimal grip through cross-section profiling.
Close fully. The object physically blocks the fingers. The actuator force against the object is the grip force. This is how real parallel-jaw grippers work.
Every lateral move goes through strict UP → ACROSS → DOWN decomposition. The arm never moves horizontally below safe height. Each sub-move changes only one axis direction, so joint-space interpolation stays close to a straight Cartesian line.
Clears all objects with the full gripper envelope (hand body + finger pads below). Prevents fingers from clipping objects during horizontal approach.
Path-specific corridor clearance. Only clears objects near the actual transit path, not everything on the table. Accounts for how far the carried object hangs below the gripper.
If the ideal carrying height is unreachable, steps down in 2cm increments until finding a height that's IK-reachable and physically safe. Floor = table + hangover + gap.
Every retreat goes UP: max(carrying_z, place_z, approach_z)
After stacking an object at z=0.61, the arm retreats to z=0.70 (the carrying height). Never descends through what it just built.
When the target object is buried in a stack, CHIRON automatically plans a multi-step sequence.
The clear spot is computed by searching a grid within the arm's workspace for the position farthest from all existing objects and the final target location.
One user command, multiple intelligent sub-steps.
Before touching anything, the sequencer solves IK for all 6 waypoints. If any is unreachable, fail immediately with a clear message. No object gets disturbed.
After closing, a small test lift checks if the object moved with the gripper. A second check after full lift catches objects that slip during ascent.
On grip failure: wait for physics to settle, re-scan the scene to find where the object ended up, and retry from the new position. Up to 3 attempts.
If anything fails mid-sequence while holding an object: open gripper, retreat upward (never down), return to ready via safe path.
CHIRON is one piece of a larger modular robotics ecosystem. The target hardware is an SO-ARM 101, a 6-DOF arm where BROTEUS provides perception, CHIRON drives the joints, and DAEDALUS closes the sim-to-real gap.
BROTEUS sees. ORION decides. CHIRON moves. DAEDALUS calibrates.