Related papers: Miniaturized Pneumatic Actuator Array for Multipoi…
Palpation of human tissue during Minimally Invasive Surgery is hampered due to restricted access. In this extended abstract, we present a variable stiffness and dynamic force range sensor that has the potential to address this challenge.…
This work focuses on closed-loop control based on proprioceptive feedback for a pneumatically-actuated soft wearable device aimed at future support of infant reaching tasks. The device comprises two soft pneumatic actuators (one…
A novel, highly flexible capacitor fiber (with 100 nF m-1 typical capacitance per length) having a multilayer periodic structure of dielectric and conductive polymer composite films is fabricated by drawing technique. The fiber is used to…
Various fields, including medical and human interaction robots, gain advantages from the development of bioinspired soft actuators. Many recently developed grippers are pneumatics that require external pressure supply systems, thereby…
Object manipulation is a fundamental challenge in robotics, where systems must balance trade-offs among manipulation capabilities, system complexity, and throughput. Distributed manipulator systems (DMS) use the coordinated motion of…
The current methods of assessing tendon health such as clinical examination, imaging techniques, and implanted pressure sensors, are often based on a subjective assessment or are not accurate enough, are extremely expensive, or are limited…
To enhance pediatric exosuit design, it is crucial to assess the actuator-generated forces. This work evaluates the contact forces exerted by soft fabric-based pneumatic actuators in an upper extremity pediatric exosuit. Two actuators were…
Stretchable sensors indicate promising prospects for soft robotics, medical devices, and human-machine interactions due to the high compliance of soft materials. Discrete sensing strategies, including sensor arrays and distributed sensors,…
Numerous soft actuators based on PneuNet design have already been proposed and extensively employed across various soft robotics applications in recent years. Despite their widespread use, a common limitation of most existing designs is…
Capacitive technology allows building sensors that are small, compact and have high sensitivity. For this reason it has been widely adopted in robotics. In a previous work we presented a compliant skin system based on capacitive technology…
Tactile sensing holds great promise for enhancing manipulation precision and versatility, but its adoption in robotic hands remains limited due to high sensor costs, manufacturing and integration challenges, and difficulties in extracting…
Spatial information can be difficult to present to a visually impaired computer user. In this paper we examine a new kind of tactile cueing for non-visual interaction as a potential solution, building on earlier work on vibrotactile…
What information can we get using inflatables as sensors? While using inflatables as actuators for various interactions has been widely adopted in the HCI community, using the sensing capabilities of inflatables is much less common. Almost…
Wearable sensors are gaining in popularity because they enable outdoor experimental monitoring. This paper presents a cost-effective sensorised insole based on a mesh of tactile capacitive sensors. Each sensor's spatial resolution is about…
As interest in Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) increases, the demand for kinesthetic haptic feedback devices is rapidly rising. Motor based haptic interfaces are heavy and bulky, leading to discomfort for the user. To…
The Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) micro-plasma actuator stands out as a highly promising tool for active fluid flow control. Researchers specializing in flow control have taken a keen interest in this actuator due to its economical…
Acoustic metamaterials are artificial structures, often lattice of resonators, with unusual properties. They can be engineered to stop wave propagation in specific frequency bands. Once manufactured, their dispersive qualities remain…
The concept of creating all-mechanical soft microrobotic systems has great potential to address outstanding challenges in biomedical applications, and introduce more sustainable and multifunctional products. To this end, magnetic fields and…
Multilayer piezoelectric polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) actuators are a promising approach to enhance performance of soft microrobotic systems. In this work, we develop and characterize multilayer PVDF actuators with parallel voltage…
Response to uniaxial stress has become a major probe of electronic materials. Tuneable uniaxial stress may be applied using piezoelectric actuators, and so far two methods have been developed to couple samples to actuators. In one,…