6 accepted papers
Glacial science could benefit tremendously from autonomous robots, but previous glacial robots have had perception issues in these colorless and featureless environments, specifically with visual feature extraction. This translates to failures in visual odometry and visual navigation. Glaciologists
Previous work has demonstrated the versatility of soft robotic grippers using simple control inputs. However, these grippers still face challenges in grasping large objects and in achieving high-strength grasps. This work investigates the combination of fluidic elastomer actuators and gecko-inspired
Many scenarios require access to locations that are difficult to reach; however, mobile and untethered robots for these applications operate on a limited reserve of energy. Researchers often design robots specifically to be able to wait for periods of time in low-power states, conserving energy, and
We demonstrate a flexible, electrostatic adhesive gripper designed to controllably grasp and manipulate soft goods in space. The 8-fingered gripper has 50 cm2 of active electrodes operating at 3 kV. It generates electrostatic adhesion forces up to 3.5 N (0.70 kPa) on Ge-coated polyimide film and 1.2…
This paper introduces a new four-limbed robot, LEMUR 3, that has demonstrated climbing on cliff faces and smooth glass. Each limb on the robot consists of seven identical actuators in a serial chain. Each limb terminates in a single axis force sensor that allows various end effectors to be mounted a…
As the number of rocket bodies and other debris in Earth's orbit increases, the need to capture and remove this space junk becomes essential to protect new satellites. A low cost solution may include gecko-inspired directional adhesives, which require almost no compressive preload to generate adhesi…