Related papers: A Palm-Shape Variable-Stiffness Gripper based on 3…
Robotic grasping of 3D deformable objects (e.g., fruits/vegetables, internal organs, bottles/boxes) is critical for real-world applications such as food processing, robotic surgery, and household automation. However, developing grasp…
Very soft grain assemblies have unique shape-changing capabilities that allow them to be compressed far beyond the rigid jammed state by filling void spaces more effectively. However, accurately following the formation of these systems by…
Accurately simulating whether an object will be lifted securely or dropped during grasping is a longstanding Sim2Real challenge. Soft compliant jaw tips are almost universally used with parallel-jaw robot grippers due to their ability to…
Grasp force estimation can help prevent robots from damaging delicate objects during manipulation and improve learning-based robotic control. Integrating force sensing into deformable grippers negotiates trade-offs in cost, complexity,…
This letter proposes a novel single-fingered reconfigurable robotic gripper for grasping objects in narrow working spaces. The finger of the developed gripper realizes two configurations, namely, the insertion and grasping modes, using only…
One important vision of robotics is to provide physical assistance by manipulating different everyday objects, e.g., hand tools, kitchen utensils. However, many objects designed for dexterous hand-control are not easily manipulable by a…
Aerial transportation requires a simple yet reliable gripper for picking and placing objects of interest. In this work, we design an aerial gripper for passive grasping and impulsive release of ferrous coated objects. Permanent magnets are…
We present Shape-Haptics, an approach for designers to rapidly design and fabricate passive force feedback mechanisms for physical interfaces. Such mechanisms are used in everyday interfaces and tools, and they are challenging to design.…
We present a new approach to robot hand design specifically suited for successfully implementing robot learning methods to accomplish tasks in daily human environments. We introduce BaRiFlex, an innovative gripper design that alleviates the…
We propose a mechanically simple and cheap design for a series elastic actuator with controllable stiffness. Such characteristics are necessary for animals for running, jumping, throwing, and manipulation, yet in robots, variable stiffness…
The properties and applications of auxetics have been widely explored in the past years. Through proper utilization of auxetic structures, designs with unprecedented mechanical and structural behaviors can be produced. Taking advantage of…
Soft robotic grippers are shown to be high effective for grasping unstructured objects with simple sensing and control strategies. However, they are still limited by their speed, sensing capabilities and actuation mechanism. Hence, their…
In this paper, we presented a data-driven framework to optimize the out-of-plane stiffness for soft grippers to achieve mechanical properties as hard-to-twist and easy-to-bend. The effectiveness of this method is demonstrated in the design…
Variable Stiffness Actuators prove invaluable for robotics applications in unstructured environments, fostering safe interactions and enhancing task adaptability. Nevertheless, their mechanical design inevitably results in larger and…
Customized grippers have broad applications in industrial assembly lines. Compared with general parallel grippers, the customized grippers have specifically designed fingers to increase the contact area with the workpieces and improve the…
Soft pneumatic fingers are of great research interest. However, their significant potential is limited as most of them can generate only one motion, mostly bending. The conventional design of soft fingers does not allow them to switch to…
Grasping unknown objects has been an active research topic for decades. Approaches range from using various sensors (e.g. vision, tactile) to gain information about the object, to building passively compliant hands that react appropriately…
Picking diverse objects in the real world is a fundamental robotics skill. However, many objects in such settings are bulky, heavy, or irregularly shaped, making them ungraspable by conventional end effectors like suction grippers and…
The impressive capabilities of humans to robustly perform manipulation relies on compliant interactions, enabled through the structure and materials spatially distributed in our hands. We propose by mimicking this distributed compliance in…
Manipulation in cluttered environments like homes requires stable grasps, precise placement and robustness against external contact. We present the Soft-Bubble gripper system with a highly compliant gripping surface and dense-geometry…