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Learning motor control for muscle-driven musculoskeletal models is hindered by the computational cost of biomechanically accurate simulation and the scarcity of validated, open full-body models. Here we present MuscleMimic, an open-source…
Biological agents possess bodies that are mostly of soft tissues. Researchers have resorted to soft bodies to investigate Artificial Life (ALife)-related questions; similarly, a new era of soft-bodied robots has just begun. Nevertheless,…
Soft pneumatic actuators enable safe human-machine interaction with lightweight and powerful applied parts. On the other side, they suffer design limitations as regards complex actuation patterns, including minimum bending radii,…
Robotic manipulation of slender objects is challenging, especially when the induced deformations are large and nonlinear. Traditionally, learning-based control approaches, such as imitation learning, have been used to address deformable…
Mimicking the perceptual functions of human cutaneous mechanoreceptors, artificial skins or flexible pressure sensors can transduce tactile stimuli to quantitative electrical signals. Conventional methods to design such devices follow a…
Human motion is fundamentally driven by continuous physical interaction with the environment. Whether walking, running, or simply standing, the forces exchanged between our feet and the ground provide crucial insights for understanding and…
An underdeveloped capability in soft robotics is proprioceptive feedback control, where soft actuators can be sensed and controlled using only sensors on the robot's body. Additionally, soft actuators are often unable to support human-scale…
Faced with strong demand for robots working in underwater pipeline environments, a novel underwater multi-model locomotion robot is designed and studied in this research. By mimicking the earthworm's metameric body, the robot is segmented…
A key issue for the fabrication of scaffolds for tissue engineering is the development of processing techniques flexible enough to produce materials with a wide spectrum of solubility (bioresorption rates) and mechanical properties matching…
Active matter physics and swarm robotics have provided powerful tools for the study and control of ensembles driven by internal sources. At the macroscale, controlling swarms typically utilizes significant memory, processing power, and…
Recent advances in garment simulation have brought high-quality results closer to real-time performance. Physics-based simulators can produce accurate motion, but remain too computationally expensive for interactive applications. In…
This work presents a novel Shape Memory Alloy spring actuated continuum robotic neck that derives inspiration from pennate muscle architecture. The proposed design has 2DOF, and experimental studies reveal that the designed joint can…
Nematic elastomers are programmable soft materials that display large, reversible and predictable deformation under an external stimulus such as a change in temperature or light. While much of the work in the field has focused on actuation…
Magnetic elastomers deform under a magnetic field, working as a soft actuator. Untethered microbot made of magnetic elastomers have great potentials in performing medical tasks inside human body as mini doctors. However, the lack of a…
Humans possess a remarkable ability to react to unpredictable perturbations through immediate mechanical responses, which harness the visco-elastic properties of muscles to maintain balance. Inspired by this behaviour, we propose a novel…
A method for simulation of elastoplastic solids in multibody systems with nonsmooth and multidomain dynamics is developed. The solid is discretised into pseudo-particles using the meshfree moving least squares method. The particles carry…
In this paper we give a new control model based on the so called computed-torque method for the control of a 2 degrees of freedom orthosis for the rehabilitation of the lower limb, the AIRGAIT exoskeleton's leg orthosis. The actuation of…
This paper presents a novel framework for estimating the position and orientation of flexible manipulators undergoing vertical motion using multiple inertial measurement units (IMUs), optimized and calibrated with ground truth data. The…
Shape morphing magnetic soft materials, composed of magnetic particles in a soft polymer matrix, can transform shapes reversibly, remotely, and rapidly, finding diverse applications in actuators, soft robotics, and biomedical devices. To…
Shape change enables new capabilities for robots. One class of robots capable of dramatic shape change is soft growing "vine" robots. These robots usually feature global actuation methods for bending that limit them to simple,…