Related papers: Vibration Improves Performance in Granular Jamming…
The macroscopic response of granular solids is determined by the microscopic fabric of force chains, which, in turn, is intimately linked to the history of the solid. To query the influence of gravity on powder flow-behavior, a granular…
Jamming is a fundamental transition that governs the mechanical behavior of particulate media, including sand, foam and dense suspensions but also biological tissues: Upon compression, particulate media can change from freely flowing to a…
Recently, suction-based robotic systems with microscopic features or active suction components have been proposed to grip rough and irregular surfaces. However, sophisticated fabrication methods or complex control systems are required for…
Granular systems are not always homogeneous and can be composed of grains with very different mechanical properties. To improve our understanding of the behavior of real granular systems, in this experimental study, we compress 2D…
The motion of a vibrating object is determined by the way it is held. This simple observation has long inspired string instrument makers to create new sounds by devising elegant string clamping mechanisms, whereby the distance between the…
A granular gripper is a device used to hold objects by taking advantage of the phenomenon of Reynold's dilatancy. A membrane containing a granular sample is allowed to deform around the object to be held and then vacuum is used to jam the…
In this paper, we use impact-induced acceleration in conjunction with periodic stick-slip to successfully and quickly transport parts vertically against gravity. We show analytically that vertical vibratory transport is more difficult than…
Soft pneumatic gripping strategies are often based on pressurized actuation of structures made of soft elastomeric materials, which limits designs in terms of size, weight, achievable forces, and ease of fabrication. On the other hand,…
Real-time, low-cost, and wireless mechanical vibration monitoring is necessary for industrial applications to track the operation status of equipment, environmental applications to proactively predict natural disasters, as well as…
A key challenge in robotics is to create efficient methods for grasping objects with diverse shapes, sizes, poses, and properties. Grasping with hand-like end effectors often requires careful selection of hand orientation and finger…
We computationally study the frictional properties of sheared granular media subjected to harmonic vibration applied at the boundary. Such vibrations are thought to play an important role in weakening flows, yet the independent effects of…
Jammed states of frictional granular systems can be induced by shear strain at densities below the isostatic jamming density ($\phi_c$). It remains unclear, however, how much friction affects this so-called shear-jamming. Friction appears…
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…
In the framework of schematic hard spheres lattice models we discuss Edwards' Statistical Mechanics approach to granular media. As this approach appears to hold here to a very good approximation, by analytical calculations of Edwards'…
Quasi-2D bidisperse amorphous systems of steel beads are fluidized by a uniform upflow of air, so that the beads roll on a horizontal plane. The short-time ballistic motion of the beads is stochastic, with non-Gaussian speed distributions…
Grasping deformable objects with varying stiffness remains a significant challenge in robotics. Estimating the local stiffness of a target object is important for determining an optimal grasp pose that enables stable pickup without damaging…
Experiments with acoustic waves guided along the mechanically free surface of an unconsolidated granular packed structure provide information on the elasticity of granular media at very low pressures that are naturally controlled by the…
We investigate the jamming transition in packings of emulsions and granular materials via molecular dynamics simulations. The emulsion model is composed of frictionless droplets interacting via nonlinear normal forces obtained using…
Jamming is a ubiquitous phenomenon that appears in many soft matter systems, including granular materials, foams, colloidal suspensions, emulsions, polymers, and cells -- when jamming occurs, the system undergoes a transition from flow-like…
Shear banding and stick-slip instabilities have been long observed in sheared granular materials. Yet, their microscopic underpinnings, interdependencies and variability under different loading conditions have not been fully explored. Here,…