Related papers: Quasi-static Soft Fixture Analysis of Rigid and De…
A method for adaptive model order reduction for nonsmooth discrete element simulation is developed and analysed in numerical experiments. Regions of the granular media that collectively move as rigid bodies are substituted with rigid bodies…
This paper proposes a novel method for estimating the set of plausible poses of a rigid object from a set of points with volumetric information, such as whether each point is in free space or on the surface of the object. In particular, we…
For robot manipulation, both the controller and end-effector design are crucial. Soft grippers are generalizable by deforming to different geometries, but designing such a gripper and finding its grasp pose remains challenging. In this…
This paper presents a novel exact finite element formulation of quasi-3D beam for high-fidelity analysis of functionally graded sandwich beams. Unlike conventional displacement-based elements that rely on approximate interpolation functions…
The ability of a soft robot to perform specific tasks is determined by its contact configuration, and transitioning between configurations is often necessary to reach a desired position or manipulate an object. Based on this observation, we…
Simulation frameworks such as Isaac Sim have enabled scalable robot learning for locomotion and rigid-body manipulation; however, contact-rich simulation remains a major bottleneck for deformable object manipulation. The continuously…
Recent research efforts have yielded significant advancements in manipulating objects under homogeneous settings where the robot is required to either manipulate rigid or deformable (soft) objects. However, the manipulation under…
Recently, there has been a growing interest in rescue robots due to their vital role in addressing emergency scenarios and providing crucial support in challenging or hazardous situations where human intervention is difficult. However, very…
Recently, suction-based robotic systems with microscopic features or active suction components have been proposed to grip rough and irregular surfaces. However, sophisticated fabrication methods or complex control systems are required for…
Grip, walk, crawl, and jump. Soft robots are integrated functional structures composed of compliant mechanisms, whose activity spans various industrial applications such as surgery, healthcare, surveillance, and even planetary exploration.…
Soft machines typically exhibit slow locomotion speed and low manipulation strength because of intrinsic limitations of soft materials. Here, we present a generic design principle that harnesses mechanical instability for a variety of…
Based on the convex force-motion polynomial model for quasi-static sliding, we derive the kinematic contact model to determine the contact modes and instantaneous object motion on a supporting surface given a position controlled…
Mechanical interactions between rigid rings and flexible cables find broad application in both daily life (hanging clothes) and engineering systems (closing a tether-net). A reduced-order method for the dynamic analysis of sliding rings on…
The task of "relative placement" is to predict the placement of one object in relation to another, e.g. placing a mug onto a mug rack. Through explicit object-centric geometric reasoning, recent methods for relative placement have made…
This paper proposes a low order geometrically exact flexible beam formulation based on the utilisation of generic beam shape functions to approximate distributed kinematic properties of the deformed structure. The proposed nonlinear beam…
Continuum soft robots are inherently underactuated and subject to intrinsic input constraints, making dynamic control particularly challenging, especially in hybrid rigid-soft robots. While most existing methods focus on quasi-static…
Active soft bodies can affect their shape through an internal actuation mechanism that induces a deformation. Similar to recent work, this paper utilizes a differentiable, quasi-static, and physics-based simulation layer to optimize for…
The ever increasing number and complexity of energy-bound devices (such as the ones used in Internet of Things applications, smart phones, and mission critical systems) pose an important challenge on techniques to optimize their energy…
In this work, we focus on the family of shell formulations referred to as "solid shells", where the simulation of shell-type structures is performed by means of a mesh of 3D solid elements, with typically only one element through the…
Topological constraints have long been known to provide efficient mechanisms for localizing and storing energy across a range of length scales, from knots in DNA to turbulent plasmas. Despite recent theoretical and experimental progress on…