Related papers: Bistable SMA-driven engine for pulse-jet locomotio…
Inspired by the vertebrate branch of the animal kingdom, articulated soft robots are robotic systems embedding elastic elements into a classic rigid (skeleton-like) structure. Leveraging on their bodies elasticity, soft robots promise to…
Recent research on mobile robots has focused on increasing their adaptability to unpredictable and unstructured environments using soft materials and structures. However, the determination of key design parameters and control over these…
A theory is presented for wave-driven propulsion of floating bodies driven into oscillation at the fluid interface. By coupling the equations of motion of the body to a quasi-potential flow model of the fluid, we derive expressions for the…
Exploration of various applications is the frontier of research on inflatable robots. We proposed an articulated robots consisting of multiple pneumatic bladder links connected by rolling contact joints called Hillberry joints. The bladder…
Soft crawling robots exhibit efficient locomotion across various terrains and demonstrate robustness to diverse environmental conditions. Here, we propose a valveless soft-legged robot that integrates a pair of rotary bellows-enclosed soft…
In this work, we study lattice structures that exhibit a bistable behavior, i. e., they can snap from one stable state to another, and are also completely reversible, capable of reverting back to its original state through a heat treatment.…
Many marine creatures, gastropods, and earthworms generate continuous traveling waves in their bodies for locomotion within marine environments, complex surfaces, and inside narrow gaps. In this work, we study theoretically and…
The Hair Clip Mechanism HCM represents an innovative in plane prestressed bistable mechanism, as delineated in our preceding studies, devised to augment the functional prowess of soft robotics. When juxtaposed with conventional soft and…
DribbleBot (Dexterous Ball Manipulation with a Legged Robot) is a legged robotic system that can dribble a soccer ball under the same real-world conditions as humans (i.e., in-the-wild). We adopt the paradigm of training policies in…
The mechanical complexity of soft robots creates significant challenges for their model-based control. Specifically, linear data-driven models have struggled to control soft robots on complex, spatially extended paths that explore regions…
With this paper, the design of a biomimetic robotic squid (dubbed URSULA) developed for dexterous underwater manipulation is presented. The robot serves as a test bed for several novel underwater technologies such as soft manipulators,…
Soft robots have garnered significant attention due to their promising applications across various domains. A hallmark of these systems is their bilayer structure, where strain mismatch caused by differential expansion between layers…
In narrow, unstructured underwater environments such as environmental monitoring and minimally invasive medical procedures, micro soft robots exhibit unique advantages due to their flexible movement capabilities and small size. At the same…
Soft robots are known for their ability to perform tasks with great adaptability, enabled by their distributed, non-uniform stiffness and actuation. Bending is the most fundamental motion for soft robot design, but creating robust, and…
Autonomous ocean-exploring vehicles have begun to take advantage of onboard sensor measurements of water properties such as salinity and temperature to locate oceanic features in real time. Such targeted sampling strategies enable more…
Nature has evolved a vast array of strategies for propulsion at the air-fluid interface. Inspired by a survival mechanism initiated by the honeybee (Apis mellifera) trapped on the surface of water, we here present the SurferBot: a…
We consider the dynamics of micro-sized, asymmetrically-coated thermoresponsive hydrogel ribbons (microgels) under periodic heating and cooling in the confined space between two planar surfaces. As the result of the temperature changes, the…
Fish-inspired aquatic robots are gaining increasing attention in marine robot communities due to their high swimming speeds and efficient propulsion enabled by flexible bodies that generate undulatory motions. To support the design…
Although research studies in pneumatic soft robots develop rapidly, most pneumatic actuators are still controlled by rigid valves and conventional electronics. The existence of these rigid, electronic components sacrifices the compliance…
Synthetic microswimmers show great promise in biomedical applications such as drug delivery and microsurgery. Their locomotion, however, is subject to stringent constraints due to the dominance of viscous over inertial forces at low…