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Soft pneumatic actuators have seen applications in many soft robotic systems, and their pressure-driven nature presents unique challenges and opportunities for controlling their motion. In this work, we present a new concept: designing and…
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…
Directional and self-propelled flow in open channels has a variety of applications, including microfluidic and medical devices, industrial filtration processes, fog-harvesting and condensing apparatuses. Here, we present versatile…
Compliant mechanisms actuated by pneumatic loads are receiving increasing attention due to their direct applicability as soft robots that perform tasks using their flexible bodies. Using multiple materials to build them can further improve…
Soft robotics leverages deformable materials to develop robots capable of navigating unstructured and dynamic environments. Silicone Voxel-Based Soft Robots (Silibots) are a type of pneumatically actuated soft robots that rely on the…
Soft robots offer more flexibility, compliance, and adaptability than traditional rigid robots. They are also typically lighter and cheaper to manufacture. However, their use in real-world applications is limited due to modeling challenges…
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,…
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…
Auxetic materials become thicker rather than thinner when stretched, exhibiting an unusual negative Poisson's ratio well suited for designing shape transforming metamaterials. Current auxetic designs, however, are often monostable and…
Computational formulations for large strain, polyconvex, nearly incompressible elasticity have been extensively studied, but research on enhancing solution schemes that offer better tradeoffs between accuracy, robustness, and computational…
The purpose of this research is to design, fabricate and test a tendon driven a continuum soft robot with three modular segments, each of which has a tunable stiffness enabled by layer jamming technology. Compared with previous studies, the…
We present a microfluidic device that enables trapping, analysis, and on-demand release of individual microparticles through membrane deformation driven by pneumatic actuation. Inspired by Pachinko-style architectures, the system features…
Physical Ising machines rely on nature to guide a dynamical system towards an optimal state which can be read out as a heuristical solution to a combinatorial optimization problem. Such designs that use nature as a computing mechanism can…
Three-dimensional (3D) printing of bioelectronics offers a versatile platform for fabricating personalized and structurally integrated electronic systems within biological scaffolds. Biodegradable electronics, which naturally dissolve after…
The technological transition from soft machines to soft robots necessarily passes through the integration of soft electronics and sensors. This allows for the establishment of feedback control systems while preserving the softness of the…
The control of mortar rheology is of paramount importance in the design of systems and structures in 3D printing concrete by extrusion. This is particularly sensitive for two-component (2K) processes that use an accelerator to switch the…
The ignition of flammable liquids and gases in offshore oil and gas environments is a major risk and can cause loss of life, serious injury, and significant damage to infrastructure. Power supplies that are used to provide regulated…
Electrostatic actuators provide a promising approach to creating soft robotic sheets, due to their flexible form factor, modular integration, and fast response speed. However, their control requires kilo-Volt signals and understanding of…
Thin-walled structures capable of large, reversible deformation are key to multistable structures, origami, kirigami, and soft robotics. However, conventional fabrication techniques, including 3D printing, casting, and laser cutting, suffer…
This paper presents modeling of a compliant 2D manipulator, a so called soft hydraulic/fluidic elastomer actuator. Our focus is on fiber-Reinforced Fluidic Elastomer Actuators (RFEA) driven by a constant pressure hydraulic supply and…