Related papers: Fast Swimming Robots Based on Elastic Instability
High-performance closed-loop control of truly soft continuum manipulators has remained elusive. Experimental demonstrations have largely relied on sufficiently stiff, piecewise architectures in which each actuated segment behaves as a…
Flapping-wing robots offer significant versatility; however, achieving efficient multi-modal locomotion remains challenging. This paper presents the design, modeling, and experimentation of a novel tailless flapping-wing robot with three…
Controlled execution of dynamic motions in quadrupedal robots, especially those with articulated soft bodies, presents a unique set of challenges that traditional methods struggle to address efficiently. In this study, we tackle these…
Swelling-induced snap-buckling in a 3D micro hydrogel device, inspired by the insect-trapping action of Venus flytrap, makes it possible to generate astonishingly fast actuation. We demonstrate that elastic energy is effectively stored and…
This work presents a new modeling approach to macroscopic, polycrystalline elasto-plasticity starting from first principles and a few well-defined structural assumptions, incorporating the mildly rate-dependent (viscous) nature of plastic…
We discuss a two-dimensional model for the dynamics of axonemal deformations driven by internally generated forces of molecular motors. Our model consists of an elastic filament pair connected by active elements. We derive the dynamic…
Navigating efficiently across vortical flow fields presents a significant challenge in various robotic applications. The dynamic and unsteady nature of vortical flows often disturbs the control of underwater robots, complicating their…
The vast majority of the ocean's volume remains unexplored, in part because of limitations on the vertical range and measurement duration of existing robotic platforms. In light of the accelerating rate of climate change impacts on the…
This paper presents a Long Short-Term Memory network-based Fluid Experiment Data-Driven model (FED-LSTM) for predicting unsteady, nonlinear hydrodynamic forces on the underwater quadruped robot we constructed. Trained on experimental data…
Many swimming and flying animals are observed to cruise in a narrow range of Strouhal numbers, where the Strouhal number ${St = 2fA/U}$ is a dimensionless parameter that relates stroke frequency $f$, amplitude $A$, and forward speed $U$.…
Continuum robots are well suited for constrained environments but suffer from low distal stiffness, resulting in large posture errors under external loads. In this paper, we propose a novel structural primitive, the Distal-Stable Beam,…
Miniature underwater robots play a crucial role in the exploration and development of marine resources, particularly in confined spaces and high-pressure deep-sea environments. This study presents the design, optimization, and performance…
Swimming micro-organisms such as flagellated bacteria and sperm cells have fascinating locomotion capabilities. Inspired by their natural motion, there is an ongoing effort to develop artificial robotic nano-swimmers for potential in-body…
Soft robots are made of compliant materials and perform tasks that are challenging for rigid robots. However, their continuum nature makes it difficult to develop model-based control strategies. This work presents a robust model-based…
The concept of aerial-aquatic robots has emerged as an innovative solution that can operate both in the air and underwater. Previous research on the design of such robots has been mainly focused on mature technologies such as fixed-wing and…
Robotic tasks often require motions with complex geometric structures. We present an approach to learn such motions from a limited number of human demonstrations by exploiting the regularity properties of human motions e.g. stability,…
Variable stiffness is a key capability in biological and robotic systems, enabling adaptive interaction across tasks and environments. Mechanical metamaterials offer an alternative to conventional mechatronic solutions by encoding stiffness…
A high fidelity model is developed for an elastic string pendulum, one end of which is attached to a rigid body while the other end is attached to an inertially fixed reel mechanism which allows the unstretched length of the string to be…
Sidewinding, a locomotion strategy characterized by the coordination of lateral and vertical body undulations, is frequently observed in rattlesnakes and has been successfully reconstructed by limbless robotic systems for effective movement…
A simple way to generate propulsion at low Reynolds number is to periodically oscillate a passive flexible filament. Here we present a macroscopic experimental investigation of such a propulsive mechanism. A robotic swimmer is constructed…