Related papers: Sinkage Study in Granular Material for Space Explo…
The interest in exploring planetary bodies for scientific investigation and in-situ resource utilization is ever-rising. Yet, many sites of interest are inaccessible to state-of-the-art planetary exploration robots because of the robots'…
Robotic grippers are widely used in industries for handling objects. This paper presents the procedure of design and fabrication of a stepper motor controlled robotic gripper to be used in industries for handling small objects. The gripper…
Soft-growing robots (i.e., vine robots) are a promising class of soft robots that allow for navigation and growth in tightly confined environments. However, these robots remain challenging to model and control due to the complex interplay…
Design of robots at the small scale is a trial-and-error based process, which is costly and time-consuming. There are few dynamic simulation tools available to accurately predict the motion or performance of untethered microrobots as they…
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,…
Missions such as the Ingenuity helicopter have shown the advantages of using novel locomotion modes to increase the scientific return of planetary exploration missions. Legged robots can further expand the reach and capability of future…
Grasping a variety of objects remains a key challenge in the development of versatile robotic systems. The human hand is remarkably dexterous, capable of grasping and manipulating objects with diverse shapes, mechanical properties, and…
Research in soft manipulators has significantly enhanced object grasping capabilities, thanks to their adaptability to various shapes and sizes. Applying this technology to on-orbit servicing, especially during the capture and containment…
This contribution reports on a software framework that uses physically-based rendering to simulate camera operation in lunar conditions. The focus is on generating synthetic images qualitatively similar to those produced by an actual camera…
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…
It is important to understand how bipedal walkers balance and walk effectively on granular materials, such as sand and loose dirt, etc. This paper first presents a computational approach to obtain the motion and energy analysis of bipedal…
Conventional robot programming methods are complex and time-consuming for users. In recent years, alternative approaches such as mixed reality have been explored to address these challenges and optimize robot programming. While the findings…
Astrobee's existing one-degree-of-freedom (DOF) underactuated compliant claw gripper enables perching on the International Space Station (ISS), but provides limited capability for continuous dexterous manipulation. More complex microgravity…
Human walkers traverse diverse environments and demonstrate different gait locomotion and energy cost on granular terrains compared to solid ground. We present a stiffness-based model predictive control approach of knee exoskeleton…
Granular media (e.g., cereal grains, plastic resin pellets, and pills) are ubiquitous in robotics-integrated industries, such as agriculture, manufacturing, and pharmaceutical development. This prevalence mandates the accurate and efficient…
Robotics hand/grippers nowadays are not limited to manufacturing lines; instead, they are widely utilized in cluttered environments, such as restaurants, farms, and warehouses. In such scenarios, they need to deal with high uncertainty of…
Soft robots have drawn significant attention recently for their ability to achieve rich shapes when interacting with complex environments. However, their elasticity and flexibility compared to rigid robots also pose significant challenges…
Exploring planetary bodies with lower gravity, such as the moon and Mars, allows legged robots to utilize jumping as an efficient form of locomotion thus giving them a valuable advantage over traditional rovers for exploration. Motivated by…
An emerging paradigm is being embraced in the conceptualization of future planetary exploration missions. Ambitious objectives and increasingly demanding mission constraints stress the importance associated with faster surface mobility.…
Mudskippers are unique amphibious fish capable of locomotion in diverse environments, including terrestrial surfaces, aquatic habitats, and highly viscous substrates such as mud. This versatile locomotion is largely enabled by their…