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Cameron Smith

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Published work

7 published item(s)

preprint2026arXiv

Fiducial Exoskeletons: Image-Centric Robot State Estimation

We introduce Fiducial Exoskeletons, an image-based reformulation of 3D robot state estimation that replaces cumbersome procedures and motor-centric pipelines with single-image inference. Traditional approaches - especially robot-camera extrinsic estimation - often rely on high-precision actuators and require time-consuming routines such as hand-eye calibration. In contrast, modern learning-based robot control is increasingly trained and deployed from RGB observations on lower-cost hardware. Our key insight is twofold. First, we cast robot state estimation as 6D pose estimation of each link from a single RGB image: the robot-camera base transform is obtained directly as the estimated base-link pose, and the joint state is recovered via a lightweight global optimization that enforces kinematic consistency with the observed link poses (optionally warm-started with encoder readings). Second, we make per-link 6D pose estimation robust and simple - even without learning - by introducing the fiducial exoskeleton: a lightweight 3D-printed mount with a fiducial marker on each link and known marker-link geometry. This design yields robust camera-robot extrinsics, per-link SE(3) poses, and joint-angle state from a single image, enabling robust state estimation even on unplugged robots. Demonstrated on a low-cost robot arm, fiducial exoskeletons substantially simplify setup while improving calibration, state accuracy, and downstream 3D control performance. We release code and printable hardware designs to enable further algorithm-hardware co-design.

preprint2026arXiv

LLM-ADAM: A Generalizable LLM Agent Framework for Pre-Print Anomaly Detection in Additive Manufacturing

Additive manufacturing (AM) continues to transform modern manufacturing by enabling flexible, on-demand production of complex geometries across diverse industries. Fused filament fabrication (FFF) has extended AM to laboratories, classrooms, and small production environments, but this accessibility shifts process-planning responsibility to users who may lack manufacturing expertise. A syntactically valid slicer profile can still encode thermally or geometrically harmful settings, and subtle G-code edits can alter extrusion, cooling, or adhesion before a print begins. Pre-print G-code screening catches accidental or adversarial machine-program errors before material or machine time is wasted. This paper proposes LLM-ADAM as a generalizable LLM framework for pre-print anomaly detection in AM. The framework decomposes the task into three roles: Extractor-LLM maps a G-code file to a structured process-parameter schema; Reference-LLM converts printer and material documentation into aligned operating ranges; and Judge-LLM interprets a deterministic deviation table and G-code evidence to decide whether a part is non-defective or belongs to an anomaly class. Printers, materials, and LLM backbones are interchangeable test conditions, not fixed assumptions. We evaluate the framework on an N=200 FFF G-code corpus spanning two desktop printer families, two materials, and five classes including non-defective, under-extrusion, over-extrusion, warping, and stringing. The best framework configuration reaches 87.5% accuracy, compared with 59.5% for the strongest engineered single-LLM baseline. The results show that structured decomposition, rather than backbone strength alone, is the dominant source of improvement, with defect classes identified at or near ceiling for leading configurations while residual errors concentrate on conservative false alarms for non-defective samples.

preprint2022arXiv

Paint2Pix: Interactive Painting based Progressive Image Synthesis and Editing

Controllable image synthesis with user scribbles is a topic of keen interest in the computer vision community. In this paper, for the first time we study the problem of photorealistic image synthesis from incomplete and primitive human paintings. In particular, we propose a novel approach paint2pix, which learns to predict (and adapt) "what a user wants to draw" from rudimentary brushstroke inputs, by learning a mapping from the manifold of incomplete human paintings to their realistic renderings. When used in conjunction with recent works in autonomous painting agents, we show that paint2pix can be used for progressive image synthesis from scratch. During this process, paint2pix allows a novice user to progressively synthesize the desired image output, while requiring just few coarse user scribbles to accurately steer the trajectory of the synthesis process. Furthermore, we find that our approach also forms a surprisingly convenient approach for real image editing, and allows the user to perform a diverse range of custom fine-grained edits through the addition of only a few well-placed brushstrokes. Supplemental video and demo are available at https://1jsingh.github.io/paint2pix

preprint2020arXiv

World ships: Feasibility and Rationale

World ships are hypothetical, large, self-contained spacecraft for crewed interstellar travel, taking centuries to reach other stars. Due to their crewed nature, size, and long trip times, the feasibility of world ships faces an additional set of challenges compared to interstellar probes. Despite their emergence in the 1980s, most of these topics remain unexplored. This article revisits some of the key feasibility issues of world ships. First, definitions of world ships from the literature are revisited and the notion of world ship positioned with respect to similar concepts such as generation ships. Second, the key question of population size is revisited in light of recent results from the literature. Third, socio-technical and economic feasibility issues are evaluated. Finally, world ships are compared to potential alternative modes of crewed interstellar travel. Key roadblocks for world ships are the considerable resources required, shifting its economic feasibility beyond the year 2300, and the development of a maintenance system capable of detecting, replacing, and repairing several components per second. The emergence of alternative, less costly modes of crewed interstellar travel at an earlier point in time might render world ships obsolete.

preprint2015arXiv

Emergence of self-reinforcing information bottlenecks in multilevel selection

We explain how hierarchical organization of biological systems emerges naturally during evolution, through a transition in the units of individuality. We will show how these transitions are the result of competing selective forces operating at different levels of organization, each level having different units of individuality. Such a transition represents a singular point in the evolutionary process, which we will show corresponds to a phase transition in the way information is encoded, with the formation of self-reinforcing information bottlenecks. We present an abstract model for characterizing these transitions that is quite general, applicable to many different versions of such transitions. As a concrete example, we consider the transition to multicellularity. Specifically, we study a stochastic model where isolated communities of interacting individuals (e.g. cells) undergo a transition to higher-order individuality (e.g. multicellularity). This transition is indicated by the marked decrease in the number of cells utilized to generate new communities from pre-existing ones. In this sense, the community begins to reproduce as a whole via a decreasing number of cells. We show that the fitness barrier to this transition is strongly reduced by horizontal gene transfer. These features capture two of the most prominent aspects of the transition to multicellularity: the evolution of a developmental process and reproduction through a unicellular bottleneck.

preprint2015arXiv

Hierarchical Network Structure Promotes Dynamical Robustness

The relationship between network topology and system dynamics has significant implications for unifying our understanding of the interplay among metabolic, gene-regulatory, and ecosystem network architecures. Here we analyze the stability and robustness of a large class of dynamics on such networks. We determine the probability distribution of robustness as a function of network topology and show that robustness is classified by the number of links between modules of the network. We also demonstrate that permutation of these modules is a fundamental symmetry of dynamical robustness. Analysis of these findings leads to the conclusion that the most robust systems have the most hierarchical structure. This relationship provides a means by which evolutionary selection for a purely dynamical phenomenon may shape network architectures across scales of the biological hierarchy.

preprint2015arXiv

Potential unsatisfiability of cyclic constraints on stochastic biological networks biases selection toward hierarchical architectures

Constraints placed upon the phenotypes of organisms result from their interactions with the environment. Over evolutionary timescales, these constraints feed back onto smaller molecular subnetworks comprising the organism. The evolution of biological networks is studied by considering a network of a few nodes embedded in a larger context. Taking into account this fact that any network under study is actually embedded in a larger context, we define network architecture, not on the basis of physical interactions alone, but rather as a specification of the manner in which constraints are placed upon the states of its nodes. We show that such network architectures possessing cycles in their topology, in contrast to those that do not, may be subjected to unsatisfiable constraints. This may be a significant factor leading to selection biased against those network architectures where such inconsistent constraints are more likely to arise. We proceed to quantify the likelihood of inconsistency arising as a function of network architecture finding that, in the absence of sampling bias over the space of possible constraints and for a given network size, networks with a larger number of cycles are more likely to have unsatisfiable constraints placed upon them. Our results identify a constraint that, at least in isolation, would contribute to a bias in the evolutionary process toward more hierarchical-modular versus completely connected network architectures. Together, these results highlight the context-dependence of the functionality of biological networks.