Related papers: Soft Fluidic Closed-Loop Controller for Untethered…
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…
Conventional fluid-driven soft grippers typically depend on external sources, which limit portability and long-term autonomy. This work introduces a self-contained soft gripper with fixed size that operates solely through internal liquid…
We propose a new robotic cover prototype that achieves thermal display while also being soft. We focus on the thermal cue because previous human studies have identified it as part of the touch pleasantness. The robotic cover surface can be…
Robotics and automation are key enablers to increase throughput in ongoing conservation efforts across various threatened ecosystems. Cataloguing, digitisation, husbandry, and similar activities require the ability to interact with…
This study presents the development and experimental verification of a biomimetic manta ray robot for underwater autonomous exploration. Inspired by manta rays, the robot uses flapping motion for propulsion to minimize seabed disturbance…
Crawling is a common locomotion mechanism in soft robots and nonskeletal animals. In this work we propose modeling soft-robotic legged locomotion by approximating it with an equivalent articulated robot with elastic joints. For concreteness…
This research develops a novel sensor for aquatic robots inspired by the whiskers of harbor seals. This sensor can detect the movement of water, offering valuable data on speed, currents, barriers, and water disturbance. It employs a…
Aiming to achieve both high functionality and flexibility in soft robot system, this paper presents a soft urethane sheet-like valve with an amplifier that can perform logical operations using only pneumatic signals. When the control…
Incorporating effective tactile sensing and mechanical compliance is key towards enabling robust and safe operation of robots in unknown, uncertain and cluttered environments. Towards realizing this goal, we present a lightweight,…
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…
Developing soft robots that can control their own life-cycle and degrade on-demand while maintaining hyper-elasticity is a significant research challenge. On-demand degradable soft robots, which conserve their original functionality during…
When swimming at low Reynolds numbers, inertial effects are negligible and reciprocal movements cannot induce net motion. Instead, symmetry breaking is necessary to achieve net propulsion. Directed swimming can be supported by magnetic…
The vision of creating entirely-soft robots capable of performing complex tasks will be accomplished only when the controllers required for autonomous operation can be fully implemented on soft components. Despite recent advances in…
Positive-negative pressure regulation is critical to soft robotic actuators, enabling large motion ranges and versatile actuation modes. However, achieving high-performance regulation across both pressure polarities remains challenging due…
Electrohydraulic servosystems are widely employed in industrial applications such as robotic manipulators, active suspensions, precision machine tools and aerospace systems. They provide many advantages over electric motors, including high…
Depending on multiple parameters, soft robots can exhibit different modes of locomotion that are difficult to model numerically. As a result, improving their performance is complex, especially in small-scale systems characterized by low…
Underwater vehicles have seen significant development over the past seventy years. However, bio-inspired propulsion robots are still in their early stages and require greater interdisciplinary collaboration between biologists and…
Existing underwater SLAM systems are difficult to work effectively in texture-sparse and geometrically degraded underwater environments, resulting in intermittent tracking and sparse mapping. Therefore, we present Water-DSLAM, a novel…
Autonomous underwater inspection of submerged pipelines is challenging due to confined geometries, turbidity, and the scarcity of reliable localization cues. This paper presents a minimal-sensing strategy that enables a free-swimming…
The motion of biological micro-robots -- similar to that of swimming microorganisms such as bacteria or spermatozoa -- is governed by different physical rules than what we experience in our daily life. This is particularly due to the…