Related papers: OpenPneu: Compact platform for pneumatic actuation…
This paper presents a novel fabric-based thermal-haptic interface for virtual reality and teleoperation. It integrates pneumatic actuation and conductive fabric with an innovative ultra-lightweight design, achieving only 2~g for each finger…
The recent advancements in machine learning techniques have steered us towards the data-driven design of products. Motivated by this objective, the present study proposes an automated design methodology that employs data-driven methods to…
Soft robotics hold promise in the development of safe yet powered assistive wearable devices for infants. Key to this is the development of closed-loop controllers that can help regulate pneumatic pressure in the device's actuators in an…
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…
Wings of flying animals can not only generate lift and control torques but also can sense their surroundings. Such dual functions of sensing and actuation coupled in one element are particularly useful for small sized bio-inspired robotic…
Flexible robots have advantages over rigid robots in their ability to conform physically to their environment and to form a wide variety of shapes. Sensing the force applied by or to flexible robots is useful for both navigation and…
Air-permeable porous media hosts air within their pores. Upon removal from the interior of the material, these porous media have the tendency to reabsorb air from the surrounding, acting as a suction pump. Therefore, the technique used to…
This paper demonstrates the computational design of soft elastomeric pneumatic actuators using nonlinear topology optimization. An existing density- and porohyperelasticity-based topology optimization framework was extended from 2D to 3D…
The development of fast and strong microactuators that can be integrated in microdevices is an essential challenge due to a lack of appropriate driving principles. In this paper, a membrane actuator powered by internal combustion of…
Alternative computing approaches that interface readily with physical systems are well suited for embedded control of those systems. We demonstrate finite state machines implemented as pneumatic circuits of microfluidic valves, and we…
Soft robots enable safe, adaptive interaction with complex environments but remain difficult to sense and control due to their highly deformable structures. Architected soft materials such as helicoid lattices offer tunable stiffness and…
Track systems effectively distribute loads, augmenting traction and maneuverability on unstable terrains, leveraging their expansive contact areas. This tracked locomotion capability also aids in hand manipulation of not only regular…
Developing an organoid computing platform from neurons in vitro demands stable, precisely controlled microenvironments. To address this requirement, we designed, simulated, and fabricated a microfluidic device featuring hexagonal wells…
Soft-robot designs are manifold, but only a few are publicly available. Often, these are only briefly described in their publications. This complicates reproduction, and hinders the reproducibility and comparability of research results. If…
Soft pneumatic actuators are used to steer soft growing "vine" robots while being flexible enough to undergo the tip eversion required for growth. In this study, we compared the performance of three types of pneumatic actuators in terms of…
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 have been leveraged in considerable areas like surgery, rehabilitation, and bionics due to their softness, flexibility, and safety. However, it is challenging to produce two same soft robots even with the same mold and…
We propose a sensorization method for soft pneumatic actuators that uses an embedded microphone and speaker to measure different actuator properties. The physical state of the actuator determines the specific modulation of sound as it…
We introduce PuppetAI, a modular soft robot interaction platform. This platform offers a scalable cable-driven actuation system and a customizable, puppet-inspired robot gesture framework, supporting a multitude of interaction gesture robot…
Pushing is a simple yet effective skill for robots to interact with and further change the environment. Related work has been mostly focused on utilizing it as a non-prehensile manipulation primitive for a robotic manipulator. However, it…