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Robotic systems operating in unstructured environments require the ability to switch between compliant and rigid states to perform diverse tasks such as adaptive grasping, high-force manipulation, shape holding, and navigation in…
Quadrupedal manipulators require to be compliant when dealing with external forces during autonomous manipulation, tele-operation or physical human-robot interaction. This paper presents a whole-body controller that allows for the…
In this paper, the problem of making a safe compliant contact between a human and an assistive robot is considered. Users with disabilities have a need to utilize their assistive robots for physical human-robot interaction (PHRI) during…
Local-remote systems allow robots to execute complex tasks in hazardous environments such as space and nuclear power stations. However, establishing accurate positional mapping between local and remote devices can be difficult due to time…
Soft robots can execute tasks with safer interactions. However, control techniques that can effectively exploit the systems' capabilities are still missing. Differential dynamic programming (DDP) has emerged as a promising tool for…
Robots have limited adaptation ability compared to humans and animals in the case of damage. However, robot damages are prevalent in real-world applications, especially for robots deployed in extreme environments. The fragility of robots…
The purpose of this research is to design, fabricate and test a tendon driven a continuum soft robot with three modular segments, each of which has a tunable stiffness enabled by layer jamming technology. Compared with previous studies, the…
Series Elastic Actuators provide many benefits in force control of robots in unconstrained environments. These benefits include high force fidelity, extremely low impedance, low friction, and good force control bandwidth. Series Elastic…
Several recently released humanoid robots, inspired by the mechanical design of Cassie, employ actuator configurations in which the motors are displaced from the joints to reduce leg inertia. While studies accounting for the full kinematic…
This manuscript presents a model of compliant contacts for time-critical humanoid robot motion control. The proposed model considers the environment as a continuum of spring-damper systems, which allows us to compute the equivalent contact…
Configuring a prosthetic leg is an integral part of the fitting process, but the personalization of a multi-modal powered knee-ankle prosthesis is often too complex to realize in a clinical environment. This paper develops both the…
Force modulation of robotic manipulators has been extensively studied for several decades. However, it is not yet commonly used in safety-critical applications due to a lack of accurate interaction contact modeling and weak performance…
Modular Active Cell Robots (MACROs) are a design paradigm for modular robotic hardware that uses only two components, namely actuators and passive compliant joints. Under the MACRO approach, a large number of actuators and joints are…
There is increasing interest in control frameworks capable of moving robots from industrial cages to unstructured environments and coexisting with humans. Despite significant improvement in some specific applications (e.g., medical…
Automatically configuring a robotic prosthesis to fit its user's needs and physical conditions is a great technical challenge and a roadblock to the adoption of the technology. Previously, we have successfully developed reinforcement…
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…
Exoskeletons play a crucial role in assisting patients with varying mobility levels during rehabilitation. However, existing control strategies face challenges such as imprecise trajectory tracking, interaction torque oscillations, and…
Physical interactive robotics, ranging from wearable devices to collaborative humanoid robots, require close coordination between mechanical design and control. However, evaluating interactive dynamics is challenging due to complex human…
Operating robots precisely and at high speeds has been a long-standing goal of robotics research. Balancing these competing demands is key to enabling the seamless collaboration of robots and humans and increasing task performance. However,…
Soft robots are notoriously hard to control. This is partly due to the scarcity of models able to capture their complex continuum mechanics, resulting in a lack of control methodologies that take full advantage of body compliance. Currently…