Related papers: A Bio-Inspired Tensegrity Manipulator with Multi-D…
Continuum arms, such as trunk and tentacle robots, lie between the two extremities of rigid and soft robots and promise to capture the best of both worlds in terms of manipulability, dexterity, and compliance. This paper proposes a new…
This paper presents a new stiffness modulation mechanism that enables infinite-range stiffness modulation in a fast manner. The proposed stiffness modulation mechanism can help improve many robot environment interaction applications such as…
Passivity is necessary for robots to fluidly collaborate and interact with humans physically. Nevertheless, due to the unconstrained nature of passivity-based impedance control laws, the robot is vulnerable to infeasible and unsafe…
Controlling friction at the fingertip is fundamental to dexterous manipulation, yet remains difficult to realize in robotic hands. We present the design and analysis of a robotic fingertip equipped with passive rollers that can be…
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…
Wrist-driven orthotics have been designed to assist people with C6-7 spinal cord injury, however, the kinematic constraint imposed by such a control strategy can impede mobility and lead to abnormal body motion. This study characterizes…
Human kinematics is of fundamental importance for rehabilitation and assistive robotic systems that physically interact with human. The wrist plays an essential role for dexterous human-robot interaction, but its conventional kinematic…
The paper presents a methodology to enhance the stiffness analysis of serial and parallel manipulators with passive joints. It directly takes into account the loading influence on the manipulator configuration and, consequently, on its…
Industrial manipulators do not collapse under their own weight when powered off due to the friction in their joints. Although these mechanism are effective for stiff position control of pick-and-place, they are inappropriate for legged…
Soft robotic actuators can simplify the design of controllers when operating in contact-rich environments. Importantly, their passive compliance fundamentally alters contact mechanics by smoothing impacts and distributing forces over large…
Work environments are often inadequate and lack inclusivity for individuals with upper-body disabilities. This paper presents a novel online framework for adaptive human-robot interaction (HRI) that accommodates users' arm mobility…
Transferring human motion to a mobile robotic manipulator and ensuring safe physical human-robot interaction are crucial steps towards automating complex manipulation tasks in human-shared environments. In this work, we present a novel…
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…
Under-actuated robot grippers as a pervasive tool of robots have become a considerable research focus. Despite their simplicity of mechanical design and control strategy, they suffer from poor versatility and weak adaptability, making…
In this study, we present the Differential Spiral Joint (DSJ) mechanism for variable stiffness actuation in tendon-driven robots. The DSJ mechanism semi-decouples the modulation of position and mechanical stiffness, allowing independent…
We present a novel algorithm for collision-free kinematics of multiple manipulators in a shared workspace with moving obstacles. Our optimization-based approach simultaneously handles collision-free constraints based on reciprocal velocity…
Humanoid robots have the potential capability to perform a diverse range of manipulation tasks, but this is based on a robust and precise standing controller. Existing methods are either ill-suited to precisely control high-dimensional…
For locomotion, is an arm on a legged robot a liability or an asset for locomotion? Biological systems evolved additional limbs beyond legs that facilitates postural control. This work shows how a manipulator can be an asset for legged…
The paper presents a new stiffness modelling method for multi-chain parallel robotic manipulators with flexible links and compliant actuating joints. In contrast to other works, the method involves a FEA-based link stiffness evaluation and…
Compliance in actuation has been exploited to generate highly dynamic maneuvers such as throwing that take advantage of the potential energy stored in joint springs. However, the energy storage and release could not be well-timed yet. On…