Related papers: Cable-Driven Actuation for Highly Dynamic Robotic …

To be useful tools in real scenarios, humanoid robots must realize tasks dynamically. This means that they must be capable of applying substantial forces, rapidly swinging their limbs, and also mitigating impacts that may occur during the…

In the quest for electrically-driven soft actuators, the focus has shifted away from liquid-gas phase transition, commonly associated with reduced strain rates and actuation delays, in favour of electrostatic and other electrothermal…

We design, build, and thoroughly test a new type of actuator dubbed viscoelastic liquid cooled actuator (VLCA) for robotic applications. VLCAs excel in the following five critical axes of performance: energy efficiency, torque density,…

Transporting objects using quadrotors with cables has been widely studied in the literature. However, most of those approaches assume that the cables are previously attached to the load by human intervention. In tasks where multiple objects…

We propose a novel hybrid cable-based robot with manipulator and camera for high-accuracy, medium-throughput plant monitoring in a vertical hydroponic farm and, as an example application, demonstrate non-destructive plant mass estimation.…

We describe the hardware design, force-rendering approach, and evaluation of a new reconfigurable haptic interface consisting of a network of hybrid motor-brake actuation modules that apply forces via cables. Each module contains both a…

Robots built from cable-driven tensegrity (`tension-integrity') structures have many of the advantages of soft robots, such as flexibility and robustness, while still obeying simple statics and dynamics models. However, existing tensegrity…

Humanoid robots toward human-level dexterity require robotic hands capable of simultaneously providing high grasping force, rapid actuation speeds, multiple degrees of freedom, and lightweight structures within human-like size constraints.…

We consider transporting a heavy payload that is attached to multiple multirotors. The current state-of-the-art controllers either do not avoid inter-robot collision at all, leading to crashes when tasked with carrying payloads that are…

This paper describes the design and control of a support and recovery system for use with planar legged robots. The system operates in three modes. First, it can be operated in a fully transparent mode where no forces are applied to the…

This paper tackles the problem of robots collaboratively towing a load with cables to a specified goal location while avoiding collisions in real time. The introduction of cables (as opposed to rigid links) enables the robotic team to…

In robotic hand research, minimizing the number of actuators while maintaining human-hand-consistent dimensions and degrees of freedom constitutes a fundamental challenge. Drawing bio-inspiration from human hand kinematic configurations and…

In robotics, structural design and behavior optimization have long been considered separate processes, resulting in the development of systems with limited capabilities. Recently, co-design methods have gained popularity, where bi-level…

We explore how high-speed robot arm motions can dynamically manipulate cables to vault over obstacles, knock objects from pedestals, and weave between obstacles. In this paper, we propose a self-supervised learning framework that enables a…

Tensegrity robots excel in tasks requiring extreme levels of deformability and robustness. However, there are challenges in state estimation and payload versatility due to their high number of degrees of freedom and unconventional shape.…

Collaborative robots must simultaneously be safe enough to operate in close proximity to human operators and powerful enough to assist users in industrial tasks such as lifting heavy equipment. The requirement for safety necessitates that…

This paper proposes a new type of actuator at millimeter scale, which is based on Simplified Electro-Permanent (SEP) magnets. The new actuator can achieve connection and smooth motion by controlling the polarity of SEP magnets. Analyses…

In human-robot interactions, eye movements play an important role in non-verbal communication. However, controlling the motions of a robotic eye that display similar performance as the human oculomotor system is still a major challenge. In…

This work considers a large class of systems composed of multiple quadrotors manipulating deformable and extensible cables. The cable is described via a discretized representation, which decomposes it into linear springs interconnected…

Wearable and legged robot designers face multiple challenges when choosing actuation. Traditional fully actuated designs using electric motors are multifunctional but oversized and inefficient for bearing conservative loads and for being…