Related papers: A Novel Robotic Variable Stiffness Mechanism Based…
A new strain energy function for the hyperelastic modelling of ligaments and tendons whose fascicles have a helical arrangement of fibrils is derived. The stress-strain response of a single fascicle whose fibrils exhibit varying levels of…
We demonstrate experimentally the existence of a purely elastic fingering instability which arises when air penetrates into an elastomer confined in a Hele-Shaw cell. Fingers appear sequentially and propagate within the bulk of the material…
A bio-inspired, passively deployable flap attached to an airfoil by a torsional spring of fixed stiffness can provide significant lift improvements at post-stall angles of attack. In this work, we describe a hybrid active-passive variant to…
Self-shaping of curved structures, especially those involving flexible thin layers, has attracted increasing attention because of their broad potential applications in e.g. nanoelectromechanical/micro-electromechanical systems (NEMS/MEMS),…
This paper presents an interaction control algorithm for a dielectric elastomer membrane actuator. The proposed method permits efficient exploitation of the controllable stiffness of the material, allowing to use the membrane as a…
The natural impedance, or dynamic relationship between force and motion, of a human operator can determine the stability of exoskeletons that use interaction-torque feedback to amplify human strength. While human impedance is typically…
This paper proposes a network decoupling method based on Holomorphic Embedding (HE) for voltage stability analysis. Using the proposed HE method with a physical load scaling factor s, it develops a set of decoupled two-bus circuit channels…
Lubricated contacts in soft materials are important in various engineering systems and natural settings. Three major lubrication regimes are boundary (BL), mixed (ML), and elasto-hydrodynamic (EHL) lubrication, where the contact region is…
Whole-arm tactile sensing enables a robot to sense contact and infer contact properties across its entire arm. Within this paper, we demonstrate that using data-driven methods, a humanoid robot can infer mechanical properties of objects…
We present an experimental method to fabricate centimetric thin elastic capsules with highly uniform thickness and negligible bending stiffness using silicone elastomers. In our experiments, the capsules thickness is tunable at fabrication,…
Soft robots have high adaptability and safeness which are derived from their softness, and therefore it is paid attention to use them in human society. However, the controllability of soft robots is not enough to perform dexterous behaviors…
Incremental stiffness characterizes the variation of a material's force response to a small deformation change. Typically materials have an incremental stiffness that is fixed and positive, but recent technologies, such as super-lenses, low…
Lower Limb Exoskeletons (LLEs) are wearable robots that provide mechanical power to the user. Human-exoskeleton (HE) connections must preserve the user's natural behavior during the interaction, avoiding undesired forces. Therefore,…
Robust locomotion control depends on accurate state estimations. However, the sensors of most legged robots can only provide partial and noisy observations, making the estimation particularly challenging, especially for external states like…
Based on the idea of variable stiffness mechanisms, a variety of such mechanisms is shown in this work. Specifically, 2-DOF parallel kinematic machines equipped with redundant actuators and non-linear springs in the actuated joints are…
This work describes the development of a high-resolution tactile-sensing finger for robot grasping. This finger, inspired by previous GelSight sensing techniques, features an integration that is slimmer, more robust, and with more…
Ensuring the safe and reliable operation of collaborative robots demands robust sensor diagnostics. This paper introduces a methodology for formulating model-based constraints tailored for sensor diagnostics, featuring analytical…
This paper delineates the formulation and verification of an innovative robotic forearm and elbow design, mirroring the intricate biomechanics of human skeletal and ligament systems. Conventional robotic models often undervalue the…
Confinement of a slender body into a granular array induces stress localization in the geometrically nonlinear structure, and jamming, reordering, and vertical dislocation of the surrounding granular medium. By varying the initial packing…
We propose a novel autonomous robotic palpation framework for real-time elastic mapping during tissue exploration using a viscoelastic tissue model. The method combines force-based parameter estimation using a commercial force/torque sensor…