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Research-collab proposal: URML formal-methods alignment with AMBER Lab + obelisk composition #162

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@idoco2003

Hi AMBER Lab,

Posting this as a research-collaboration proposal to Prof. Aaron Ames and the AMBER team. I'm Ido Yahalomi, maintainer of URML, an Apache 2.0 specification for substrate-neutral robot intent.

AMBER's nonlinear control + hybrid-systems + bipedal-locomotion + prosthetics research is the strongest formal-methods alignment URML has encountered across six outreach moves. URML's capability manifest schema can encode joint limits, contact constraints, hybrid-systems mode-switch boundaries. Exactly the formal surfaces AMBER's papers reason over. URML's static-verification path (RFC-0014 Draft) sits one layer above that.

obelisk is interesting: it's "a stable generic robot control interface" with explicit overlap to URML's substrate-Protocol abstraction. The two should compose, not compete. URML's RFC asks whether obelisk + URML composition is the right shape.

This is proposal-only, part of URML's Move #6 outreach (US-friendly university robotics labs). No URML adapter against AMBER code in this RFC.

Full RFC: https://github.com/URML-MARS/URML/blob/main/docs/rfcs/0081-caltech-amber-outreach.md

Feedback we'd value

  1. obelisk + URML composition. Is obelisk a substrate-Protocol target for URML, or is URML's primitive layer better composed above obelisk at a different level?
  2. Formal-methods integration. Is there an AMBER publication whose controller would be a useful pilot for URML manifest encoding?
  3. Coursework integration. Caltech Robotics Minor or ME 11 as candidate for URML primitive vocabulary?
  4. Prosthetics research-side complement. URML's RFC-0079 opened accessibility as a documented identity (academic + commercial-courtesy). Interest in a documented bridge between AMBER's prosthetics work and URML's accessibility identity?
  5. Conformance lane on obelisk README or bipedalrobotics.com?
  6. Anything else.

Thanks for AMBER's open-source posture across obelisk, ambersim, and the broader Caltech-AMBER repos. The formal-methods alignment with URML is the strongest of any Move #6 lab.

Ido Yahalomi (URML maintainer, urml.dev)

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