Related papers: A General Lie-Group Framework for Continuum Soft R…
The deformable and continuum nature of soft robots promises versatility and adaptability. However, control of modular, multi-limbed soft robots for terrestrial locomotion is challenging due to the complex robot structure, actuator mechanics…
We present a generalization of Lie's method for finding the group invariant solutions to a system of partial differential equations. Our generalization relaxes the standard transversality assumption and encompasses the common situation…
SLOT (Soft Legged Omnidirectional Tetrapod), a tendon-driven soft quadruped robot with 3D-printed TPU legs, is presented to study physics-informed modeling and control of compliant legged locomotion using only four actuators. Each leg is…
Precise kinematic modeling is critical in calibration and controller design for soft robots, yet remains a challenging issue due to their highly nonlinear and complex behaviors. To tackle the issue, numerous data-driven machine learning…
Soft actuators offer compliant and safe interaction with an unstructured environment compared to their rigid counterparts. However, control of these systems is often challenging because they are inherently under-actuated, have infinite…
Continuum soft robots are mechanical systems entirely made of continuously deformable elements. This design solution aims to bring robots closer to invertebrate animals and soft appendices of vertebrate animals (e.g., an elephant's trunk, a…
We present a novel general model that unifies the kinematics of constant curvature and constant twist continuum manipulators. Combining this kinematics with energy-based physics, we derive a linear mapping from actuator configuration to…
Serially connected robots are promising candidates for performing tasks in confined spaces such as search-and-rescue in large-scale disasters. Such robots are typically limbless, and we hypothesize that the addition of limbs could improve…
Learning robot motions from demonstration requires models able to specify vector fields for the full robot pose when the task is defined in operational space. Recent advances in reactive motion generation have shown that learning adaptive,…
This paper presents the application of the concepts and approaches of linear graph (LG) theory in the modeling and simulation of a 4-wheel skid-steer mobile robotic system. An LG representation of the system is proposed and the accompanying…
This work provides a complete framework for the simulation, co-optimization, and sim-to-real transfer of the design and control of soft legged robots. The compliance of soft robots provides a form of "mechanical intelligence" -- the ability…
Recently soft robotics has rapidly become a novel and promising area of research with many designs and applications due to their flexible and compliant structure. However, it is more difficult to derive the nonlinear dynamic model of such…
Soft continuum robots achieve complex deformation through elastic equilibrium, making their reachable motions governed jointly by structural design and actuation-induced mechanics. This work develops a general formulation that integrates…
Soft robots are well suited for contact-rich tasks due to their compliance, yet this property makes accurate and tractable modeling challenging. Planning motions with dynamically-feasible trajectories requires models that capture arbitrary…
We propose a finite element method for simulating one-dimensional solid models moving and experiencing large deformations while immersed in generalized Newtonian fluids. The method is oriented towards applications involving microscopic…
Soft, slender structures are ubiquitous in natural and engineered systems, with broad application potential from biomimetic materials to soft robotics. However, there is a notable lack of computational tools that simultaneously preserve…
Algorithms that use derivatives of governing equations have accelerated rigid robot simulations and improved their accuracy, enabling the modeling of complex, real-world capabilities. However, extending these methods to soft and hybrid…
Continuum soft robots are nonlinear mechanical systems with theoretically infinite degrees of freedom (DoFs) that exhibit complex behaviors. Achieving motor intelligence under dynamic conditions necessitates the development of…
Continuous-time trajectory representations are a powerful tool that can be used to address several issues in many practical simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) scenarios, like continuously collected measurements distorted by robot…
This paper presents a generalization of conventional sliding mode control designs for systems in Euclidean spaces to fully actuated simple mechanical systems whose configuration space is a Lie group for the trajectory-tracking problem. A…