Related papers: Flexoskeleton printing for versatile insect-inspir…
Interactable objects are ubiquitous in our daily lives. Recent advances in 3D generative models make it possible to automate the modeling of these objects, benefiting a range of applications from 3D printing to the creation of robot…
Legged locomotion is a highly promising but under-researched subfield within the field of soft robotics. The compliant limbs of soft-limbed robots offer numerous benefits, including the ability to regulate impacts, tolerate falls, and…
Conformable robotic systems are attractive for applications in which they can be used to actuate structures with large surface areas, to provide forces through wearable garments, or to realize autonomous robotic systems. We present a new…
Soft robots achieve functionality through tight coupling among geometry, material composition, and actuation. As a result, effective design optimization requires these three aspects to be considered jointly rather than in isolation. This…
Soft materials capable of large inelastic deformation play an essential role in high-performance nacre-inspired architectured materials with a combination of stiffness, strength and toughness. The rigid "building blocks" made from glass or…
This paper presents the design, modeling, and fabrication of 3D-printed, tendon-actuated continuum robots featuring a flexible, tapered backbone constructed from thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU). Our scalable design incorporates an…
The current fabrication and assembly of fluidic circuits for soft robots relies heavily on manual processes; as the complexity of fluidic circuits increases, manual assembly becomes increasingly arduous, error-prone, and timeconsuming. We…
Recently, 3D printing has been widely used to fabricate medical imaging phantoms. So far, various rigid 3D printable materials have been investigated for their radiological properties and efficiency in imaging phantom fabrication. However,…
3D printing is rapidly becoming an effective means of prototyping and creating custom consumer goods. The most common method for printing a polymer melt is fused filament fabrication (FFF), and involves extrusion of a thermoplastic material…
A wide range of microorganisms, e.g. bacteria, propel themselves by rotation of soft helical tails, also known as flagella. Due to the small size of these organisms, viscous forces overwhelm inertial effects and the flow is at low Reynolds…
Grasping is a fundamental skill for interacting with the environment. However, this ability can be difficult for some (e.g. due to disability). Wearable robotic solutions can enhance or restore hand function, and recent advances have…
A large subset of the population suffers injury or disease that causes knee pain and difficulty navigating day-to-day tasks. Off-the-shelf knee orthoses that are commonly used to treat these ailments overlook user-specific joint geometry…
Soft robots have the potential to revolutionize the use of robotic systems with their capability of establishing safe, robust, and adaptable interactions with their environment, but their precise control remains challenging. In contrast,…
In contrast with the diversity of materials found in nature, most robots are designed with some combination of aluminum, stainless steel, and 3D-printed filament. Additionally, robotic systems are typically assumed to follow basic…
Simulation is an important step in robotics for creating control policies and testing various physical parameters. Soft robotics is a field that presents unique physical challenges for simulating its subjects due to the nonlinearity of…
Exoskeletons open up a unique interaction space that seamlessly integrates users' body movements with robotic actuation. Despite its potential, human-exoskeleton interaction remains an underexplored area in HCI, largely due to the lack of…
Due to their ability to move without sliding relative to their environment, soft growing robots are attractive for deploying distributed sensor networks in confined spaces. Sensing of the state of such robots would also add to their…
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…
Self-modeling enables robots to build task-agnostic models of their morphology and kinematics based on data that can be automatically collected, with minimal human intervention and prior information, thereby enhancing machine intelligence.…
Inchworm crawling allows for both quasistatic and dynamic gaits at a wide range of actuation frequencies. This locomotion mechanism is common in nonskeletal animals and exploited extensively in the bio-inspired field of soft robotics. In…