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Worm-inspired robots provide an effective locomotion strategy for constrained environments by combining cyclic body deformation with alternating anchoring. For compliant robots, however, the interaction between deformable anchoring…
This paper presents CONCERT, a fully reconfigurable modular collaborative robot (cobot) for multiple on-site operations in a construction site. CONCERT has been designed to support human activities in construction sites by leveraging two…
Legged robots possess inherent advantages in traversing complex 3D terrains. However, previous work on low-cost quadruped robots with egocentric vision systems has been limited by a narrow front-facing view and exteroceptive noise,…
The 3D flight control of a flapping wing robot is a very challenging problem. The robot stabilizes and controls its pose through the aerodynamic forces acting on the wing membrane which has complex dynamics and it is difficult to develop a…
This paper presents a first contribution to the design of a small aerial robot for inhabited microgravity environments, such as orbiting space stations. In particular, we target a fleet of robots for collaborative tasks with humans, such as…
Morphing aerial robots have the potential to transform autonomous flight, enabling navigation through cluttered environments, perching, and seamless transitions between aerial and terrestrial locomotion. Yet mid-flight reconfiguration…
Many robots are not equipped with a manipulator and many objects are not suitable for prehensile manipulation (such as large boxes and cylinders). In these cases, pushing is a simple yet effective non-prehensile skill for robots to interact…
Gears and cogwheels restrain degrees of freedom and channel power into a specified motion. They are fundamental components of macroscopic machines. Interlocking microrotors similarly constitute key elements toward feasible micromachinery.…
For robots to become more versatile and expand their areas of application, their bodies need to be suitable for contact with the environment. When the human body comes into contact with the environment, it is possible for it to continue to…
We introduce RoboEval, a structured evaluation framework and benchmark for robotic manipulation that augments binary success with principled behavioral and outcome metrics. Existing evaluations often collapse performance into outcome…
The selection of mobility modes for robot navigation consists of various trade-offs. Snake robots are ideal for traversing through constrained environments such as pipes, cluttered and rough terrain, whereas bipedal robots are more suited…
For lattice modular self-reconfigurable robots (MSRRs), maintaining stable connections during reconfiguration is crucial for physical feasibility and deployability. This letter presents a novel self-reconfiguration planning algorithm for…
This paper presents the design of a gimballed rotor mechanism as a modular and efficient solution for constructing omnidirectional quadrotors. Unlike conventional quadrotors, which are underactuated, this class of quadrotors achieves full…
We present a versatile framework for the computational co-design of legged robots and dynamic maneuvers. Current state-of-the-art approaches are typically based on random sampling or concurrent optimization. We propose a novel bilevel…
Inflated-beam soft robots, such as tip-everting vine robots, can control curvature by contracting one beam side via pneumatic actuation. This work develops a general finite element modeling approach to characterize their bending. The model…
Caging is a promising tool which allows a robot to manipulate an object without directly reasoning about the contact dynamics involved. Furthermore, caging also provides useful guarantees in terms of robustness to uncertainty, and often…
This paper explores the design strategies for hybrid pole- or trunk-climbing robots, focusing on methods to inform design decisions and assess metrics such as adaptability and performance. A wheeled-grasping hybrid robot with modular,…
In this paper, we propose a novel design of a hybrid mobile robot with controllable stiffness and deformable shape. Compared to conventional mobile agents, our system can switch between rigid and compliant phases by solidifying or melting…
Generalizable manipulation requires that robots be able to interact with novel objects and environment. This requirement makes manipulation extremely challenging as a robot has to reason about complex frictional interaction with uncertainty…
This paper introduces a reactive navigation framework for mobile robots in 3-dimensional (3D) space. The proposed approach does not rely on the global map information and achieves fast navigation by employing a tentacle based sampling and…