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Muscles of the human body are composed of tiny actuators made up of myosin and actin filaments. They can exert force in various shapes such as curved or flat, under contact forces and deformations from the environment. On the other hand,…
This paper presents a soft robot finger capable of adaptive-twist deformation to grasp objects by wrapping them. For a soft hand to grasp and pick-up one object from densely contained multiple objects, a soft finger requires the…
Living organisms intertwine soft (e.g., muscle) and hard (e.g., bones) materials, giving them an intrinsic flexibility and resiliency often lacking in conventional rigid robots. The emerging field of soft robotics seeks to harness these…
Operating in environments too harsh or inaccessible for humans is one of the critical roles expected of robots. However, such environments often pose risks to electronic components as well. To overcome this, various approaches have been…
Non-contact manipulation has emerged as a transformative approach across various industrial fields. However, current flexible 2D and 3D non-contact manipulation techniques are often limited to microscopic scales, typically controlling…
We demonstrate, for the first time, the large electromechanical response in nematic liquid crystalline elastomers filled with a very low (~0.01%) concentration of carbon nanotubes, aligned along the nematic director at preparation. The…
To achieve high-accuracy manipulation in the presence of unknown disturbances, we propose two novel efficient and robust motion control schemes for high-dimensional robot manipulators. Both controllers incorporate an unknown system dynamics…
Fluid-based soft actuators are an attractive option for lightweight and human-safe robots. These actuators, combined with fluid pressure force feedback, are in principle a form of series-elastic actuation (SEA), in which nearly all…
In recent years, the medical industry has witnessed a growing interest in minimally invasive procedures, with magnetic microrobots emerging as a promising approach. These micro-robots possess the ability to navigate through various media,…
This paper presents the design of a nonlinear control law for a typical electromagnetic actuator system. Electromagnetic actuators are widely implemented in industrial applications, and especially as linear positioning system. In this work,…
Soft pneumatic fingers are of great research interest. However, their significant potential is limited as most of them can generate only one motion, mostly bending. The conventional design of soft fingers does not allow them to switch to…
Moving a module in a modular robot is a very complex and error-prone process. Unlike in swarm, in the modular robots we are targeting, the moving module must keep the connection to, at least, one other module. In order to miniaturize each…
As soft continuum manipulators characterize terrific compliance and maneuverability in narrow unstructured space, low stiffness and limited dexterity are two obvious shortcomings in practical applications. To address the issues, a novel…
Ferromagnetic particles are incorporated in a thin soft elastic matrix. A lamella, made of this smart material, is studied experimentally and modeled. We show herein that thin films can be actuated using an external magnetic field applied…
Hand-wearable robots, specifically exoskeletons, are designed to aid hands in daily activities, playing a crucial role in post-stroke rehabilitation and assisting the elderly. Our contribution to this field is a textile robotic glove with…
Deployable structures, essential across various engineering applications ranging from umbrellas to satellites, are evolving to include soft, morphable designs where geometry drives transformation. However, a major challenge for soft…
Collocated tactile sensing is a fundamental enabling technology for dexterous manipulation. However, deformable sensors introduce complex dynamics between the robot, grasped object, and environment that must be considered for fine…
Mechanical metamaterials are architected manmade materials that allow for unique behaviors not observed in nature, making them promising candidates for a wide range of applications. Existing metamaterials lack tunability as their properties…
Shape morphing magnetic soft materials, composed of magnetic particles in a soft polymer matrix, can transform shapes reversibly, remotely, and rapidly, finding diverse applications in actuators, soft robotics, and biomedical devices. To…
Soft robots utilizing inflatable dielectric membranes can realize intricate functionalities through the application of non-mechanical fields. However, given the current limitations in simulations, including low computational efficiency and…