Related papers: SWheg: A Wheel-Leg Transformable Robot With Minima…
Physical joint limits are common in legged robots and can restrict workspace, constrain gait design, and increase the risk of hardware damage. This paper introduces MiNI-Q^2, a miniature, wire-free quadruped robot with independently…
We propose an online motion planner for legged robot locomotion with the primary objective of achieving energy efficiency. The conceptual idea is to leverage a placement set of footstep positions based on the robot's body position to…
The biological spine of quadrupeds enables sagittal flexion/extension, lateral bending, and axial rotation, playing a crucial role in highly agile and dexterous locomotion. While numerous studies have integrated active spinal joints into…
Hybrid locomotion of wheeled-legged robots has recently attracted increasing attention due to their advantages of combining the agility of legged locomotion and the efficiency of wheeled motion. But along with expanded performance, the…
Wheeled-legged robots hold promise for traversing complex terrains and offer superior mobility compared to legged robots. However, wheeled-legged robots must effectively balance both wheeled driving and legged control. Furthermore, due to…
Since wearable linkage mechanisms could control the moment transmission from actuator(s) to wearers, they can help ensure that even low-cost wearable systems provide advanced functionality tailored to users' needs. For example, if a hip…
Developing controllers that generalize across diverse robot morphologies remains a significant challenge in legged locomotion. Traditional approaches either create specialized controllers for each morphology or compromise performance for…
Multi-modal ground-aerial robots have been extensively studied, with a significant challenge lying in the integration of conflicting requirements across different modes of operation. The Husky robot family, developed at Northeastern…
Legged robots have achieved impressive feats in dynamic locomotion in challenging unstructured terrain. However, in entertainment applications, the design and control of these robots face additional challenges in appealing to human…
This paper presents Duawlfin, a drone with unified actuation for wheeled locomotion and flight operation that achieves efficient, bidirectional ground mobility. Unlike existing hybrid designs, Duawlfin eliminates the need for additional…
Bio-inspired soft robots have already shown the ability to handle uncertainty and adapt to unstructured environments. However, their availability is partially restricted by time-consuming, costly and highly supervised design-fabrication…
Purpose of Review: As new technological advancements are made, humanoid robots that utilise them are being designed and manufactured. For optimal design choices, a broad overview with insight on the advantages and disadvantages of available…
Modular small-scale robots offer the potential for on-demand assembly and disassembly, enabling task-specific adaptation in dynamic and constrained environments. However, existing modular magnetic platforms often depend on workspace…
This paper introduces the Mechacnially prOgrammed Radius-adjustable PHysical (MORPH) wheel, a fully passive variable-radius wheel that embeds mechanical behavior logic for torque-responsive transformation. Unlike conventional variable…
Despite the potential benefits of collaborative robots, effective manipulation tasks with quadruped robots remain difficult to realize. In this paper, we propose a hierarchical control system that can handle real-world collaborative…
Adaptive recovery from fall incidents are essential skills for the practical deployment of wheeled-legged robots, which uniquely combine the agility of legs with the speed of wheels for rapid recovery. However, traditional methods relying…
Highly articulated organisms serve as blueprints for incredibly dexterous mechanisms, but building similarly capable robotic counterparts has been hindered by the difficulties of developing electromechanical actuators with both the high…
Wearable and legged robot designers face multiple challenges when choosing actuation. Traditional fully actuated designs using electric motors are multifunctional but oversized and inefficient for bearing conservative loads and for being…
Claims that humanoid robots achieve ``human-level'' actuation are common but rarely quantified. Peak torque or speed specifications tell us little about whether a joint can deliver the right combination of torque, power, and endurance at…
This paper describes the control, and evaluation of a new human-scaled biped robot with liquid cooled viscoelastic actuators (VLCA). Based on the lessons learned from previous work from our team on VLCA [1], we present a new system design…