Related papers: Compact pneumatic clutch with integrated stiffness…
Precise and flexible cart-pushing is a challenging task for mobile robots. The motion constraints during cart-pushing and the robot's redundancy lead to complex motion planning problems, while variable payloads and disturbances present…
Vine-inspired robots achieve large workspace coverage through tip eversion, enabling safe navigation in confined and cluttered environments. However, their deployment in free space is fundamentally limited by low axial stiffness, poor…
Soft robots are inherently compliant and have a strong potential to realize human-friendly and safe robots. Despite continued research highlighting the potential of soft robots, they remain largely confined to laboratory settings. In this…
There is an increased demand for task automation in robots. Contact-rich tasks, wherein multiple contact transitions occur in a series of operations, are extensively being studied to realize high accuracy. In this study, we propose a…
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…
Attaching a heavy payload to the wrist force/moment (F/M) sensor of a manipulator can cause conventional impedance controllers to fail in establishing the desired impedance due to the presence of non-contact forces; namely, the inertial and…
Controlling the physical interaction with the environment or objects, as humans do, is a shared requirement across different types of robots. To effectively control this interaction, it is necessary to control the power delivered to the…
This paper presents a haptic interface with modular linear actuators which can address limitations of conventional devices based on rotatory joints. The proposed haptic interface is composed of parallel linear actuators that provide high…
Active control of the shape of soft robots is challenging. Despite having an infinite number of passive degrees of freedom (DOFs), soft robots typically only have a few actively controllable DOFs, limited by the number of degrees of…
Contact-rich manipulation tasks in unstructured environments pose significant robustness challenges for robot learning, where unexpected collisions can cause damage and hinder policy acquisition. Existing soft end-effectors face fundamental…
This paper investigates the robust global attitude stabilization problem for a rigid-body system using quaternion-based feedback. We propose a novel synergistic hybrid feedback with the following notable features: (1) It demonstrates…
This paper introduces a pair of low-cost, light-weight and compliant force-sensing gripping pads used for manipulating box-like objects with smaller-sized humanoid robots. These pads measure normal gripping forces and center of pressure…
Robotic arms are essential to modern industries, however, their adaptability to unstructured environments remains limited. Soft robotic arms, particularly those actuated pneumatically, offer greater adaptability in unstructured environments…
Sim-to-real transfer remains a significant challenge in soft robotics due to the unpredictability introduced by common manufacturing processes such as 3D printing and molding. These processes often result in deviations from simulated…
This paper presents the application of a learning control approach for the realization of a fast and reliable pick-and-place application with a spherical soft robotic arm. The arm is characterized by a lightweight design and exhibits…
Snapping instabilities in soft structures offer a powerful pathway to achieve rapid and energy-efficient actuation. In this study, an eccentric dome-shaped snapping actuator is developed to generate controllable asymmetric motion through…
In recent years, the focus on developing robot manipulators has shifted towards prioritizing safety in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). Impedance control is a typical approach for interaction control in collaboration tasks. However, such a…
This paper presents a novel, modular, cable-driven soft robotic arm featuring multi-segment reconfigurability. The proposed architecture enables a stackable system with independent segment control, allowing scalable adaptation to diverse…
Soft robots offer adaptability and safe interaction with complex environments. Rapid prototyping kits that allow soft robots to be assembled easily will allow different geometries to be explored quickly to suit different environments or to…
We have developed and tested a novel type of driver for insertion devices. In our approach, we compensate for the magnetic forces acting on the insertion device (ID) arrays by installing a number of compact hydraulic cylinders along the ID.…