Related papers: Hierarchical Performance-Based Design Optimization…
The authors present an overview of a hierarchical framework for coordinating task- and motion-level operations in multirobot systems. Their framework is based on the idea of using simple temporal networks to simultaneously reason about…
Pick-and-place is an important manipulation task in domestic or manufacturing applications. There exist many works focusing on grasp detection with high picking success rate but lacking consideration of downstream manipulation tasks (e.g.,…
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…
We present an efficient algorithm for motion planning and control of a robot system with a high number of degrees-of-freedom. These include high-DOF soft robots or an articulated robot interacting with a deformable environment. Our approach…
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…
This paper introduces a novel design method that enhances the force/torque, bendability, and controllability of soft pneumatic actuators (SPAs). The complex structure of the soft actuator is simplified by approximating it as a cantilever…
Inspired by the unique neurophysiology of the octopus, we propose a hierarchical framework that simplifies the coordination of multiple soft arms by decomposing control into high-level decision making, low-level motor activation, and local…
This paper presents the design, control, and applications of a multi-segment soft robotic arm. In order to design a soft arm with large load capacity, several design principles are proposed by analyzing two kinds of buckling issues, under…
We propose a novel tri-fingered soft robotic gripper with decoupled stiffness and shape control capability for performing adaptive grasping with minimum system complexity. The proposed soft fingers adaptively conform to object shapes…
Current rigid linkage grippers are limited in flexibility, and gripper design optimality relies on expertise, experiments, or arbitrary parameters. Our proposed rigid gripper can accommodate irregular and off-center objects through a…
Designing robot morphologies and kinematics has traditionally relied on human intuition, with little systematic foundation. Motion-design co-optimization offers a promising path toward automation, but two major challenges remain: (i) the…
This paper proposes a new variable stiffness soft gripper that enables high-performance grasping tasks in industrial applications. The design of the proposed monolithic soft gripper includes a middle bellow and two side bellows (i.e.,…
We propose a hierarchical architecture for efficiently computing high-quality solutions to structured mixed-integer programs (MIPs). To reduce computational effort, our approach decouples the original problem into a higher level problem and…
We propose a hierarchical design framework to automatically synthesize coordination schemes and control policies for cooperative multi-agent systems to fulfill formal performance requirements, by associating a bottom-up reactive motion…
The simulation-to-real gap problem and the high computational burden of whole-body Model Predictive Control (whole-body MPC) continue to present challenges in generating a wide variety of movements using whole-body MPC for real humanoid…
This paper proposes an MPC-based controller to efficiently execute multiple hierarchical tasks for underactuated and constrained robotic systems. Existing task-space controllers or whole-body controllers solve instantaneous optimization…
Kinesthetic garments provide physical feedback on body posture and motion through tailored distributions of reinforced material. Their ability to selectively stiffen a garment's response to specific motions makes them appealing for…
The application of granular jamming in soft robotics is a recent and promising new technology offer exciting possibilities for creating higher performance robotic devices. Granular jamming is achieved via the application of a vacuum…
Recent advancements in soft actuators have enabled soft continuum swimming robots to achieve higher efficiency and more closely mimic the behaviors of real marine animals. However, optimizing the design and control of these soft continuum…
Mechanical compliance is a key design parameter for dynamic contact-rich manipulation, affecting task success and safety robustness over contact geometry variation. Design of soft robotic structures, such as compliant fingers, requires…