Related papers: On Steerability Factors for Growing Vine Robots
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…
Objects moving in fluids experience patterns of stress on their surfaces determined by their motion and the geometry of nearby boundaries. Fish and underwater robots can use these patterns for navigation. This paper extends this…
This work demonstrates universal dynamic perching capabilities for quadrotors of various sizes and on surfaces with different orientations. By employing a non-dimensionalization framework and deep reinforcement learning, we systematically…
Growing robots based on the eversion principle are known for their ability to extend rapidly, from within, along their longitudinal axis, and, in doing so, reach deep into hitherto inaccessible, remote spaces. Despite many advantages,…
Inflated continuum robots are promising for a variety of navigation tasks, but controlling their motion with a small number of actuators is challenging. These inflated beam robots tend to buckle under compressive loads, producing extremely…
To address the issues that arise due to the manual navigation of guidewires in endovascular interventions, research in medical robotics has taken a strong interest in developing robotically steerable guidewires, which offer the possibility…
An impedance-based control scheme is introduced for cooperative manipulators grasping a rigid load. The position and orientation of the load are to be maintained close to a desired trajectory, trading off tracking accuracy by low energy…
Variable impedance actuators (VIAs) as tool devices for teleoperation could extend the range of tasks that humans can perform through a teleoperated robot by mimicking the change of upper limb stiffness that humans perform for different…
Modern applications of robotics typically involve a robot control system with an inner PI (proportional-integral) or PID (proportional-integral-derivative) control loop and an outer user-specified control loop. The existing outer loop…
Continuum robots, made from flexible materials with continuous backbones, have several advantages over traditional rigid robots. Some of them are the ability to navigate through narrow or confined spaces, adapt to irregular or changing…
Exposing an Evolutionary Algorithm that is used to evolve robot controllers to variable conditions is necessary to obtain solutions which are robust and can cross the reality gap. However, we do not yet have methods for analyzing and…
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…
Concentric Tube Robots (CTRs) have been proposed to operate within the unstructured environment for minimally invasive surgeries. In this letter, we consider the operation scenario where the tubes travel inside the channels with a large…
Robotic pruning of dormant grapevines is an area of active research in order to promote vine balance and grape quality, but so far robotic efforts have largely focused on planar, simplified vines not representative of commercial vineyards.…
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…
Soft robots are made of compliant materials that perform their tasks by deriving motion from elastic deformations. They are used in various applications, e.g., for handling fragile objects, navigating sensitive/complex environments, etc.,…
Future robots will navigate perilous, remote environments with resilience and autonomy. Researchers have proposed building robots with compliant bodies to enhance robustness, but this approach often sacrifices the autonomous capabilities…
Legged robots have demonstrated remarkable agility on rigid, stationary ground, but their locomotion reliability remains limited in non-inertial environments, where the supporting ground moves, tilts, or accelerates. Such conditions arise…
To build commercial robots, skid-steering mechanical design is of increased popularity due to its manufacturing simplicity and unique mechanism. However, these also cause significant challenges on software and algorithm design, especially…
Tensegrity structures are lightweight, can undergo large deformations, and have outstanding robustness capabilities. These unique properties inspired roboticists to investigate their use. However, the morphological design, control,…