Related papers: A Calibration Approach for Elasticity Estimation w…

Variable stiffness actuators undergo lower peak force in contacts compared to their rigid counterparts, and are thus safer for human-robot interaction. Furthermore, they can store energy in their elastic element and can release it later to…

This paper presents an improved tactile sensor using a piezoelectric bimorph able to differentiate soft materials with similar mechanical characteristics. The final aim is to develop intelligent surgical tools for brain tumour resection…

Soft robots have high adaptability and safeness which are derived from their softness, and therefore it is paid attention to use them in human society. However, the controllability of soft robots is not enough to perform dexterous behaviors…

This paper introduces a novel approach for modeling the dynamics of soft robots, utilizing a differentiable filter architecture. The proposed approach enables end-to-end training to learn system dynamics, noise characteristics, and temporal…

Cutting soft materials is a complex process governed by the interplay of bulk large deformation, interfacial soft fracture, and contact forces with the cutting tool. Existing experimental characterizations and numerical models often fail to…

Soft robots are notoriously hard to control. This is partly due to the scarcity of models able to capture their complex continuum mechanics, resulting in a lack of control methodologies that take full advantage of body compliance. Currently…

Palpation of human tissue during Minimally Invasive Surgery is hampered due to restricted access. In this extended abstract, we present a variable stiffness and dynamic force range sensor that has the potential to address this challenge.…

Machine learning techniques have been used to quantify the relationship between local structural features and variations in local dynamical activity in disordered glass-forming materials. To date these methods have been applied to an array…

Soft sensors that can discriminate shear and normal force could help provide machines the fine control desirable for safe and effective physical interactions with people. A capacitive sensor is made for this purpose, composed of patterned…

We explore the locomotion of soft robots in granular medium (GM) resulting from the elastic deformation of slender rods. A low-cost, rapidly fabricable robot inspired by the physiological structure of bacteria is presented. It consists of a…

The key factor in implementing machine learning algorithms in decision-making situations is not only the accuracy of the model but also its confidence level. The confidence level of a model in a classification problem is often given by the…

Purpose Surgical simulations play an increasingly important role in surgeon education and developing algorithms that enable robots to perform surgical subtasks. To model anatomy, Finite Element Method (FEM) simulations have been held as the…

We propose a novel autonomous robotic palpation framework for real-time elastic mapping during tissue exploration using a viscoelastic tissue model. The method combines force-based parameter estimation using a commercial force/torque sensor…

Hardness is among the most important attributes of an object that humans learn about through touch. However, approaches for robots to estimate hardness are limited, due to the lack of information provided by current tactile sensors. In this…

In various applications, such as virtual reality and gaming, simulating the deformation of soft tissues in the human body during interactions with external objects is essential. Traditionally, Finite Element Methods (FEM) have been employed…

Soft robots have immense potential given their inherent safety and adaptability, but challenges in soft actuator forces and design constraints have limited scaling up soft robots to larger sizes. Electrothermal shape memory alloy (SMA)…

Robot positioning accuracy is a key factory when performing high-precision manufacturing tasks. To effectively improve the accuracy of a manipulator, often up to a value close to its repeatability, calibration plays a crucial role. In the…

Tactile skins made from textiles enhance robot-human interaction by localizing contact points and measuring contact forces. This paper presents a solution for rapidly fabricating, calibrating, and deploying these skins on industrial robot…

When a humanoid robot performs a manipulation task, it first makes a model of the world using its visual sensors and then plans the motion of its body in this model. For this, precise calibration of the camera parameters and the kinematic…

Compared to traditional rigid robotics, soft robotics has attracted increasing attention due to its advantages as compliance, safety, and low cost. As an essential part of soft robotics, the soft robotic gripper also shows its superior…