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Trust has been shown to be a key factor in effective human-robot collaboration. In the context of assistive robotics, the effect of trust factors on human experience is further pronounced. Personalization of assistive robots is an…
For some years now, the use of social, anthropomorphic robots in various situations has been on the rise. These are robots developed to interact with humans and are equipped with corresponding extremities. They already support human users…
Identification of inertial parameters is fundamental for the implementation of torque-based control in humanoids. At the same time, good models of friction and actuator dynamics are critical for the low-level control of joint torques. We…
To perform complex tasks, robots must be able to interact with and manipulate their surroundings. One of the key challenges in accomplishing this is robust state estimation during physical interactions, where the state involves not only the…
Incorporating both flexible and rigid components in robot designs offers a unique solution to the limitations of traditional rigid robotics by enabling both compliance and strength. This paper explores the challenges and solutions for…
Crawling is a common locomotion mechanism in soft robots and nonskeletal animals. In this work we propose modeling soft-robotic legged locomotion by approximating it with an equivalent articulated robot with elastic joints. For concreteness…
The drive for efficiency and safety in construction has boosted the role of robotics and automation. However, complex tasks like welding and pipe insertion pose challenges due to their need for precise adaptive force control, which…
In the context of telehealth, robotic approaches have proven a valuable solution to in-person visits in remote areas, with decreased costs for patients and infection risks. In particular, in ultrasonography, robots have the potential to…
This chapter is about the fundamentals of fabrication, control, and human-robot interaction of a new type of collaborative robotic manipulators, called malleable robots, which are based on adjustable architectures of varying stiffness for…
Human-robot collaboration including close physical human-robot interaction (pHRI) is a current trend in industry and also science. The safety guidelines prescribe two modes of safety: (i) power and force limitation and (ii) speed and…
Soft robotic fingers can improve adaptability in grasping and manipulation, compensating for geometric variation in object or environmental contact, but today lack force capacity and fine dexterity. Integrated tactile sensors can provide…
Compression of soft bodies is central to biology, materials science, and robotics, yet existing contact theories break down at large deformations. Here, we develop a general framework for soft-body compression by extending the method of…
Pushing is a motion primitive useful to handle objects that are too large, too heavy, or too cluttered to be grasped. It is at the core of much of robotic manipulation, in particular when physical interaction is involved. It seems…
Estimation of tactile properties from vision, such as slipperiness or roughness, is important to effectively interact with the environment. These tactile properties help us decide which actions we should choose and how to perform them.…
Shared autonomy integrates user input with robot autonomy in order to control a robot and help the user to complete a task. Our work aims to improve the performance of such a human-robot team: the robot tries to guide the human towards an…
This study introduces an innovative design for a Variable Stiffness 3 Degrees of Freedom actuated wrist capable of actively and continuously adjusting its overall stiffness by modulating the active length of non-linear elastic elements.…
Soft robots could bring robotic systems to new horizons, by enabling safe human-machine interaction. For precise control, these soft structures require high level position feedback that is not easily achieved through conventional…
Haptic feedback to the surgeon during robotic surgery would enable safer and more immersive surgeries but estimating tissue interaction forces at the tips of robotically controlled surgical instruments has proven challenging. Few existing…
Knowledge of the mechanical properties of materials is required for the design and analysis of engineering products, however, the characterisation of heterogeneous properties using traditional techniques is limited by spatial resolution or…
Frictional contact has been extensively studied as the core underlying behavior of legged locomotion and manipulation, and its nearly-discontinuous nature makes planning and control difficult even when an accurate model of the robot is…