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Collaborative robots should ideally use low torque actuators for passive safety reasons. However, some applications require these collaborative robots to reach deep into confined spaces while assisting a human operator in physically…
We present a new open-source torque-controlled legged robot system, with a low-cost and low-complexity actuator module at its core. It consists of a high-torque brushless DC motor and a low-gear-ratio transmission suitable for impedance and…
Wearable and legged robot designers face multiple challenges when choosing actuation. Traditional fully actuated designs using electric motors are multifunctional but oversized and inefficient for bearing conservative loads and for being…
A monoped's jump height and energy consumption depend on both, its mechanical design and control strategy. Existing co-design frameworks typically optimize for either maximum height or minimum energy, neglecting their trade-off. They also…
Highly articulated organisms serve as blueprints for incredibly dexterous mechanisms, but building similarly capable robotic counterparts has been hindered by the difficulties of developing electromechanical actuators with both the high…
Automatically generating agile whole-body motions for legged and humanoid robots remains a fundamental challenge in robotics. While numerous trajectory optimization approaches have been proposed, there is no clear guideline on how the…
Robotics would gain by replicating the remarkable agility of arthropods in navigating complex environments. Here we consider the control of multi-legged systems which have 6 or more legs. Current multi-legged control strategies in robots…
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…
Soft robotic manipulators are attractive for a range of applications such as medical interventions or industrial inspections in confined environments. A myriad of soft robotic manipulators have been proposed in the literature, but their…
Isoperimetric robotic trusses can adapt to different tasks and environments because they have a high strength-to-weight ratio, can change their own shape dramatically, and can be reconfigured into a variety of different shapes. However,…
Humanoid robots are made to resemble humans but their locomotion abilities are far from ours in terms of agility and versatility. When humans walk on complex terrains, or face external disturbances, they combine a set of strategies,…
Dynamic locomotion in legged robots is close to industrial collaboration, but a lack of standardized testing obstructs commercialization. The issues are not merely political, theoretical, or algorithmic but also physical, indicating limited…
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'…
There is a growing need for robots that can change their shape, size and mechanical properties to adapt to evolving tasks and environments. However, current shape-changing systems generally utilize bespoke, system-specific mechanisms that…
Tendon-driven continuum robots (TDCRs), with their flexible backbones, offer the advantage of being used for navigating complex, cluttered environments. However, to do so, they typically require multiple segments, often leading to complex…
Tendon-driven robots, where one or more tendons under tension bend and manipulate a flexible backbone, can improve minimally invasive surgeries involving difficult-to-reach regions in the human body. Planning motions safely within…
Interactive navigation is crucial in scenarios where proactively interacting with objects can yield shorter paths, thus significantly improving traversal efficiency. Existing methods primarily focus on using the robot body to relocate large…
This paper develops a comparative framework for the design of actuated inertial appendages for planar, aerial reorientation. We define the Inertial Reorientation template, the simplest model of this behavior, and leverage its linear…
This paper investigates robotic peg-in-hole assembly using the Elementary Dynamic Actions (EDA) framework, which models contact-rich tasks through a combination of submovements, oscillations, and mechanical impedance. Rather than focusing…
Robotic manipulators often face challenges in handling objects of different sizes and materials, limiting their effectiveness in practical applications. This issue is particularly pronounced when manipulating meter-scale objects or those…