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Cooperative transportation by multi-aerial robots has the potential to support various payloads and improve failsafe against dropping. Furthermore, changing the attachment positions of robots according payload characteristics increases the…
In this letter, we present a novel bi-modal bi-copter robot called Skater, which is adaptable to air and various ground surfaces. Skater consists of a bi-copter moving along its longitudinal direction with two passive wheels on both sides.…
As quadrotors take on an increasingly diverse range of roles, researchers often need to develop new hardware platforms tailored for specific tasks, introducing significant engineering overhead. In this article, we introduce the UniQuad…
Autonomous missions of small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are prone to collisions owing to environmental disturbances and localization errors. Consequently, a UAV that can endure collisions and perform recovery control in critical aerial…
Soft-growing robots are innovative devices that feature plant-inspired growth to navigate environments. Thanks to their embodied intelligence of adapting to their surroundings and the latest innovation in actuation and manufacturing, it is…
Although wheeled robots have been predominant for planetary exploration, their geometry limits their capabilities when traveling over steep slopes, through rocky terrains, and in microgravity. Legged robots equipped with grippers are a…
We explore a novel method to perceive and manipulate 3D articulated objects that generalizes to enable a robot to articulate unseen classes of objects. We propose a vision-based system that learns to predict the potential motions of the…
The expectation of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) pushes the operation environment to narrow spaces, where the systems may fly very close to an object and perform an interaction. This phase brings the variation in UAV dynamics: thrust and…
The U.S. Air Force currently is in the process of developing an Airborne Network (AN) to provide support to its combat aircrafts on a mission. The reliability needed for continuous operation of an AN is difficult to achieve through…
Interests in exploration of new energy resources are increasing due to the exhaustion of existing resources. To explore new energy sources, various studies have been conducted to improve the drilling performance of drilling equipment for…
Robots are widely deployed in space environments because of their versatility and robustness. However, adverse gravity conditions and challenging terrain geometry expose the limitations of traditional robot designs, which are often forced…
Collision-resilient quadrotors have gained significant attention given their potential for operating in cluttered environments and leveraging impacts to perform agile maneuvers. However, existing designs are typically single-mode: either…
In this paper, we present the design, simulation and experimental validation of a control architecture for a flying hand, i.e., a system made of an unmanned aerial vehicle, a robotic manipulator and a gripper, which is grasping an object…
A new type of parallel robot mechanism with an extendable structure is presented, and its kinematic properties and design parameters are analyzed. The Triple Scissor Extender (TSE) is a 6 Degree-Of-Freedom robotic mechanism for reaching…
In-situ aeroengine maintenance works are highly beneficial as it can significantly reduce the current maintenance cycle which is extensive and costly due to the disassembly requirement of engines from aircrafts. However, navigating in/out…
In this paper, a legless capsule robot (capsubot) comprised of a sealed external body, an internal body, and a rotational actuator is proposed. The aim of this robot is to move in a two-dimensional viscous environment. After the robot is…
Soft everting robots present significant advantages over traditional rigid robots, including enhanced dexterity, improved environmental interaction, and safe navigation in unpredictable environments. While soft everting robots have been…
Multi-modal ground-aerial robots have been extensively studied, with a significant challenge lying in the integration of conflicting requirements across different modes of operation. The Husky robot family, developed at Northeastern…
The concept of aerial-aquatic robots has emerged as an innovative solution that can operate both in the air and underwater. Previous research on the design of such robots has been mainly focused on mature technologies such as fixed-wing and…
Air ducts are integral to modern buildings but are challenging to access for inspection. Small quadrotor drones offer a potential solution, as they can navigate both horizontal and vertical sections and smoothly fly over debris. However,…