Related papers: A 'MAP' to find high-performing soft robot designs…
Tailoring the design of robot bodies for control purposes is implicitly performed by engineers, however, a methodology or set of tools is largely absent and optimization of morphology (shape, material properties of robot bodies, etc.) is…
This paper presents a computational framework for the robust stiffness design of hyperelastic structures at finite deformations subject to various uncertain sources. In particular, the loading, material properties, and geometry…
Soft growing robots are novel devices that mimic plant-like growth for navigation in cluttered or dangerous environments. Their ability to adapt to surroundings, combined with advancements in actuation and manufacturing technologies, allows…
Recent advancements in robotics have transformed industries such as manufacturing, logistics, surgery, and planetary exploration. A key challenge is developing efficient motion planning algorithms that allow robots to navigate complex…
The encoding of solutions in black-box optimization is a delicate, handcrafted balance between expressiveness and domain knowledge -- between exploring a wide variety of solutions, and ensuring that those solutions are useful. Our main…
Soft robots can exhibit better performance in specific tasks compared to conventional robots, particularly in healthcare-related tasks. However, the field of soft robotics is still young, and designing them often involves mimicking natural…
Quality-Diversity optimisation algorithms enable the evolution of collections of both high-performing and diverse solutions. These collections offer the possibility to quickly adapt and switch from one solution to another in case it is not…
Topology optimization (TO) in two dimensions often presents a trade-off between structural performance and manufacturability, with unpenalized (variable-thickness) methods yielding superior but complex designs, and penalized (SIMP) methods…
Topology optimization of microstructures plays a critical role in optimizing functional performance across diverse engineering applications. While metamaterials with enhanced mechanical properties -- such as hyperelasticity, energy…
An important new trend in additive manufacturing is the use of optimization to automatically design industrial objects, such as beams, rudders or wings. Topology optimization, as it is often called, computes the best configuration of…
A topology optimization method is presented for the design of periodic microstructured materials with prescribed homogenized nonlinear constitutive properties over finite strain ranges. The mechanical model assumes linear elastic isotropic…
Many fields use search algorithms, which automatically explore a search space to find high-performing solutions: chemists search through the space of molecules to discover new drugs; engineers search for stronger, cheaper, safer designs,…
Locomotive soft robots (SoRos) have gained prominence due to their adaptability. Traditional locomotive SoRo design is based on limb structures inspired by biological organisms and requires human intervention. Evolutionary robotics,…
Grasp planning and most specifically the grasp space exploration is still an open issue in robotics. This article presents an efficient procedure for exploring the grasp space of a multifingered adaptive gripper for generating reliable…
Although wheeled robots have been predominant for planetary exploration, their geometry limits their capabilities when traveling over steep slopes, through rocky terrains, and in microgravity. Legged robots equipped with grippers are a…
Robotic systems are routinely used in the logistics industry to enhance operational efficiency, but the design of robot workspaces remains a complex and manual task, which limits the system's flexibility to changing demands. This paper aims…
Autonomous operation of service robotics in human-centric scenes remains challenging due to the need for understanding of changing environments and context-aware decision-making. While existing approaches like topological maps offer…
In this paper, we exploit minimal sensing information gathered from biologically inspired sensor networks to perform exploration and mapping in an unknown environment. A probabilistic motion model of mobile sensing nodes, inspired by motion…
Deep learning has recently been applied to various research areas of design optimization. This study presents the need and effectiveness of adopting deep learning for generative design (or design exploration) research area. This work…
The Finite element method (FEM) has long served as the computational backbone for topology optimization (TO). However, for designing structures undergoing large deformations, conventional FEM-based TO often exhibits numerical instabilities…