Related papers: Force interaction, modeling and soft tissue deform…

Characterizing the softness of deformable materials having partial elastic and partial viscous behaviour via soft lubrication experiments has emerged as a versatile and robust methodology in recent times. However, a straightforward…

Soft robotics have gained increased attention from the robotic community due to their unique features such as compliance and human safety. Impressive amount of soft robotic prototypes have shown their superior performance over their rigid…

We study interactions between biological cells that apply anisotropic active mechanical forces on an elastic substrate. We model the cells as thin discs that along their perimeters apply radial, but angle-dependent forces on the substrate.…

Traction force microscopy is a method widely used in biophysics and cell biology to determine forces that biological cells apply to their environment. In the experiment, the cells adhere to a soft elastic substrate, which is then deformed…

Collective cell migration is a highly regulated process involved in wound healing, cancer metastasis and morphogenesis. Mechanical interactions among cells provide an important regulatory mechanism to coordinate such collective motion.…

Grasping objects under uncertainty remains an open problem in robotics research. This uncertainty is often due to noisy or partial observations of the object pose or shape. To enable a robot to react appropriately to unforeseen effects, it…

We measure the elastic and dissipative responses of a multicontact interface, formed between the rough surfaces of two contacting macroscopic solids, submitted to a biased oscillating shear force. We evidence that beyond a linear…

Reciprocal movement cannot be used for locomotion at low-Reynolds number in an infinite fluid or near a rigid surface. Here we show that this limitation is relaxed for a body performing reciprocal motions near a deformable interface. Using…

Conventional soft pneumatic actuators, typically based on hollow elastomeric chambers, often suffer from small structural support and require costly geometry-specific redesigns for multimodal functionality. Porous materials such as foam,…

Understanding how soft particles can fill the space is still an open question. Structures far from classical FCC or BCC phases are now commonly experimentally observed in many different systems. Models based on pair interaction between soft…

Non-flat surfaces pose difficulties for robots operating in unstructured environments. Reconstructions of uneven surfaces may only be partially possible due to non-compliant end-effectors and limitations on vision systems such as…

Soft robots achieve functionality through tight coupling among geometry, material composition, and actuation. As a result, effective design optimization requires these three aspects to be considered jointly rather than in isolation. This…

The tribology between surfaces can have a profound impact on the response of a mechanical system, such as how granular particles are driven to flow. In this work, we perform experiments that time-resolve the tangential and normal components…

Characterizing forces on deformable objects intruding into sand and soil requires understanding the solid and fluid-like responses of such substrates and their effect on the state of the object. The most detailed studies of intrusion in dry…

Robotic manipulation has made significant advancements, with systems demonstrating high precision and repeatability. However, this remarkable precision often fails to translate into efficient manipulation of thin deformable objects. Current…

Tactile sensing in soft robots remains particularly challenging because of the coupling between contact and deformation information which the sensor is subject to during actuation and interaction with the environment. This often results in…

Soft particles at fluid interfaces play an important role in many aspects of our daily life, such as the food industry, paints and coatings, and medical applications. Analytical methods are not capable of describing the emergent effects of…

This work demonstrates the benefits of using tool-tissue interaction forces in the design of autonomous systems in robot-assisted surgery (RAS). Autonomous systems in surgery must manipulate tissues of different stiffness levels and hence…

Small drops impinging angularly on thin flowing soap films frequently demonstrate the rare emergence of bulk elastic effects working in-tandem with the more common-place hydrodynamic interactions. Three collision regimes are observable: (a)…

Within a closed system, physical interactions are reciprocal. However, the effective interaction between two entities of an open system may not obey reciprocity. Here, we describe a non-reciprocal interaction between nanoparticles which is…