Related papers: Optimal Dexterity for a Snake-like Surgical Manipu…
Fully wearable hand rehabilitation and assistive devices could extend training and improve quality of life for patients affected by hand impairments. However, such devices must deliver meaningful manipulation capabilities in a small and…
Using joint actuators to drive the skeletal movements is a common practice in character animation, but the resultant torque patterns are often unnatural or infeasible for real humans to achieve. On the other hand, physiologically-based…
This paper presents a novel concept to support physically impaired humans in daily object manipulation tasks with a robot. Given a user's manipulation sequence, we propose a predictive model that uniquely casts the user's sequential…
This paper proposes a new framework to design a controller for the dexterous manipulation of an object by a multi-fingered hand. To achieve a robust manipulation and wide range of operations, the uncertainties on the location of the contact…
In-hand manipulation tasks, particularly in human-inspired robotic systems, must rely on distributed tactile sensing to achieve precise control across a wide variety of tasks. However, the optimal configuration of this network of sensors is…
Robotic-assisted orthopaedic surgeries demand accurate, automated leg manipulation for improved spatial accuracy to reduce iatrogenic damage. In this study, we propose novel rigid body designs and an optical tracking volume setup for…
In robotic surgery, pattern cutting through a deformable material is a challenging research field. The cutting procedure requires a robot to concurrently manipulate a scissor and a gripper to cut through a predefined contour trajectory on…
Supernumerary Robotics Device (SRD) is an ideal solution to provide robotic assistance in overhead manual manipulation. Since two arms are occupied for the overhead task, it is desired to have additional arms to assist us in achieving other…
Compliant mechanisms achieve motion through elastic deformation. In this work, we address the synthesis of a compliant cross-hinge mechanism capable of large angular strokes while approximating the behavior of an ideal revolute joint. To…
Task-dependent controllers widely used in exoskeletons track predefined trajectories, which overly constrain the volitional motion of individuals with remnant voluntary mobility. Energy shaping, on the other hand, provides task-invariant…
Computed Tomography (CT) image guidance enables accurate and safe minimally invasive treatment of diseases, including cancer and chronic pain, with needle-like tools via a percutaneous approach. The physician incrementally inserts and…
Although robotic manipulators are used in an ever-growing range of applications, robot manufacturers typically follow a ``one-fits-all'' philosophy, employing identical manipulators in various settings. This often leads to suboptimal…
Modular reconfigurable manipulators enable quick adaptation and versatility to address different application environments and tailor to the specific requirements of the tasks. Task performance significantly depends on the manipulator's…
Natural organisms utilize distributed actuation through their musculoskeletal systems to adapt their gait for traversing diverse terrains or to morph their bodies for varied tasks. A longstanding challenge in robotics is to emulate this…
This paper presents a dynamic constraint formulation to provide protective virtual fixtures of 3D anatomical structures from polygon mesh representations. The proposed approach can anisotropically limit the tool motion of surgical robots…
A hyper-redundant robotic arm is a manipulator with many degrees of freedom, capable of executing tasks in cluttered environments where robotic arms with fewer degrees of freedom are unable to operate. This paper introduces a new method for…
Shared autonomy allows for combining the global planning capabilities of a human operator with the strengths of a robot such as repeatability and accurate control. In a real-time teleoperation setting, one possibility for shared autonomy is…
Tendon-driven continuum robots (TDCRs), with their flexible backbones, offer the advantage of being used for navigating complex, cluttered environments. However, to do so, they typically require multiple segments, often leading to complex…
Robotic manipulation of deformable objects remains a challenging task. One such task is folding a garment autonomously. Given start and end folding positions, what is an optimal trajectory to move the robotic arm to fold a garment? Certain…
High-performance closed-loop control of truly soft continuum manipulators has remained elusive. Experimental demonstrations have largely relied on sufficiently stiff, piecewise architectures in which each actuated segment behaves as a…