Related papers: Muscle-inspired flexible mechanical logic architec…
Orthogonally assembled double-layered corrugated (OADLC) mechanisms are a class of foldable structures that harness origami-inspired methods to enhance the structural stiffness of resulting devices; these mechanisms have extensive…
Parallel-elastic joints can improve the efficiency and strength of robots by assisting the actuators with additional torques. For these benefits to be realized, a spring needs to be carefully designed. However, designing robots is an…
Achieving versatile and explosive motion with robustness against dynamic uncertainties is a challenging task. Introducing parallel compliance in quadrupedal design is deemed to enhance locomotion performance, which, however, makes the…
Mechanical metamaterials are those structures designed to convey force and motion in novel and desirable ways. Recently, Kane and Lubensky showed that lattices at the point of marginal mechanical stability (Maxwell lattices) possess a…
Even though artificial muscles have gained popularity due to their compliant, flexible, and compact properties, there currently does not exist an easy way of making informed decisions on the appropriate actuation strategy when designing a…
Combinatorial mechanical metamaterials are made of anisotropic, flexible blocks, such that multiple metamaterials may be constructed using a single block type, and the system's response strongly depends on the mutual orientations of the…
Advanced machine learning algorithms require platforms that are extremely robust and equipped with rich sensory feedback to handle extensive trial-and-error learning without relying on strong inductive biases. Traditional robotic designs,…
Humanoid robots are envisioned as general-purpose platforms in human-centered environments, yet their deployment is limited by vulnerability to falls and the risks posed by rigid metal-plastic structures to people and surroundings. We…
Soft robotics has advanced rapidly, yet its control methods remain fragmented: different morphologies and actuation schemes still require task-specific controllers, hindering theoretical integration and large-scale deployment. A generic…
While magnetic solid-state memory has found commercial applications to date, magnetic logic has rather remained on a conceptual level so far. Here, we discuss open challenges of different spintronic logic approaches, which use magnetic…
Articulated objects like doors, drawers, valves, and tools are pervasive in our everyday unstructured dynamic environments. Articulation models describe the joint nature between the different parts of an articulated object. As most of these…
Active solids are a large class of materials, including both living soft tissues and artificial matter, that share the ability to undergo strain even in absence of external loads. While in engineered materials the actuation is typically…
Granular materials are of critical interest to many robotic tasks in planetary science, construction, and manufacturing. However, the dynamics of granular materials are complex and often computationally very expensive to simulate. We…
Deploying robots in open-ended unstructured environments such as homes has been a long-standing research problem. However, robots are often studied only in closed-off lab settings, and prior mobile manipulation work is restricted to…
The design of physical compliance -- its location, degree, and structure -- affects robot performance and robustness in contact-rich tasks. While compliance is often used in the robot's joints, flange, or end-effector, this paper proposes…
We present a reinforcement learning framework for quadrupedal wall-climbing locomotion that explicitly addresses uncertainty in magnetic foot adhesion. A physics-based adhesion model of a quadrupedal magnetic climbing robot is incorporated…
Musculoskeletal robots offer intrinsic compliance and flexibility, providing a promising paradigm for versatile locomotion. However, existing research typically relies on models with fixed muscle physiological parameters. This static…
Responsive, adaptive and intelligent are widely used but inconsistently defined descriptors of soft matter. A conceptual framework is proposed in which the three classes are information channels of increasing architectural complexity: a…
This paper presents a robust control scheme for flexible link robotic manipulators, which is based on considering the flexible mechanical structure as a system with slow (rigid) and fast (flexible) modes that can be controlled separately.…
While its biological significance is well-documented, its application in soft robotics, particularly for the transport of fragile and irregularly shaped objects, remains underexplored. This study presents a modular soft robotic actuator…