Related papers: Exploiting short-term memory in soft body dynamics…

Many soft-body organisms found in nature flourish underwater. Similarly, soft robots are potentially well-suited for underwater environments partly because the problematic effects of gravity, friction, and harmonic oscillations are less…

Dynamic motions are a key feature of robotic arms, enabling them to perform tasks quickly and efficiently. Soft continuum manipulators do not currently consider dynamic parameters when operating in task space. This shortcoming makes…

Tailoring the design of robot bodies for control purposes is implicitly performed by engineers, however, a methodology or set of tools is largely absent and optimization of morphology (shape, material properties of robot bodies, etc.) is…

We analyze continuous Hopfield associative memories augmented by additional, rapid short-term associative synaptic plasticity. Through the cavity method, we determine the boundary between the retrieval and forgetting, or spin-glass phase,…

We report short-term memory formation in a nonlinear dynamical system with many degrees of freedom. The system ``remembers'' a sequence of impulses for a transient period, but it coarsens and eventually ``forgets'' nearly all of them. The…

Accurate deformable object manipulation (DOM) is essential for achieving autonomy in robotic surgery, where soft tissues are being displaced, stretched, and dissected. Many DOM methods can be powered by simulation, which ensures realistic…

Robotic manipulation has made significant advancements, with systems demonstrating high precision and repeatability. However, this remarkable precision often fails to translate into efficient manipulation of thin deformable objects. Current…

The 'infinite' passive degrees of freedom of soft robotic arms render their control especially challenging. In this paper, we leverage a previously developed model, which drawing equivalence of the soft arm to a series of universal joints,…

We present a method for differentiable simulation of soft articulated bodies. Our work enables the integration of differentiable physical dynamics into gradient-based pipelines. We develop a top-down matrix assembly algorithm within…

Using dimensionally reduced models for the numerical simulation of thin objects is highly attractive as this reduces the computational work substantially. The case of narrow thin elastic bands is considered and a convergent finite element…

We present in-hand manipulation skills on a dexterous, compliant, anthropomorphic hand. Even though these skills were derived in a simplistic manner, they exhibit surprising robustness to variations in shape, size, weight, and placement of…

Soft robots offer unmatched adaptability and safety in unstructured environments, yet their compliant, high-dimensional, and nonlinear dynamics make modeling for control notoriously difficult. Existing data-driven approaches often fail to…

This paper presents the principal challenges and opportunities associated with computational biomechanics research. The underlying cognitive control involved in the process of human motion is inherently complex, dynamic, multidimensional,…

Real-life control tasks involve matters of various substances---rigid or soft bodies, liquid, gas---each with distinct physical behaviors. This poses challenges to traditional rigid-body physics engines. Particle-based simulators have been…

Animals achieve sophisticated behavioral control through dynamic coupling of the brain, body, and environment. Accordingly, the co-design approach, in which both the controllers and the physical properties are optimized simultaneously, has…

Soft robots are notoriously hard to control. This is partly due to the scarcity of models able to capture their complex continuum mechanics, resulting in a lack of control methodologies that take full advantage of body compliance. Currently…

We present a computational design system that assists users to model, optimize, and fabricate quad-robots with soft skins.Our system addresses the challenging task of predicting their physical behavior by fully integrating the multibody…

In various applications, such as virtual reality and gaming, simulating the deformation of soft tissues in the human body during interactions with external objects is essential. Traditionally, Finite Element Methods (FEM) have been employed…

Dynamic bonding is an essential feature of many soft materials. Molecular simulations have proven to be a powerful tool for modeling bonding kinetics and thermodynamics in these materials, providing insights into their properties that…

Soft robotic manipulators offer operational advantage due to their compliant and deformable structures. However, their inherently nonlinear dynamics presents substantial challenges. Traditional analytical methods often depend on simplifying…