9 accepted papers
Redesigning and remanufacturing robots are infeasible for resource-constrained environments like space or undersea. This work thus studies how to evaluate and repurpose existing, complementary, quadruped legs for new tasks. We implement this approach on 15 robot designs generated from combining six
To facilitate the study of how passive leg stiffness influences locomotion dynamics and performance, we have developed an affordable and accessible 400 g quadruped robot driven by tunable compliant laminate legs, whose series and parallel stiffness can be easily adjusted; fabrication only takes 2.5…
We propose a novel mechanism that propagates vibration through soft twisted beams, taking advantage of dynamically-coupled anisotropic stiffness to simplify the actuation of walking robots. Using dynamic simulation and experimental approaches, we show that the coupled stiffness of twisted beams with
Foldable, origami-inspired, and laminate mechanisms are highly susceptible to deformation under external loading, which can lead to position or orientation errors if idealized kinematic models are used. According to dimensional scaling laws, laminate devices can often be treated as rigid bodies at m…
In this letter, we present an approach to study the behavior of compliant plates in granular media and optimize the performance of a robot that utilizes this technique for mobility. From previous work and fundamental tests on thin plate force generation inside granular media, we introduce an origami
Rowing is a swimming motion employed by a number of animals via tuned passive biomechanics and active gait strategies. This gait generates positive net thrust (or moment) by having a higher drag profile in the power stroke compared with the recovery stroke, which is obtained via faster actuation spe
Due to the nature of the complex spatiotemporal dynamics of stimuli-responsive soft materials, closed-loop control of hydrogel-actuated mechanisms has remained a challenge. This letter demonstrates, for the first time, closed-loop trajectory tracking control in real-time of a millimeter-scale, two d
Tuning the stiffness of soft robots is essential in order to extend usability and control the maneuverability of soft robots. In this paper, we propose a novel mechanism that can reconfigure the stiffness of tubular structures, using pinching to induce highly directional changes in stiffness. When p…
The agility and ease of control make a quadrotor aircraft an attractive platform for studying swarm behavior, modeling, and control. The energetics of sustained flight for small aircraft, however, limit typical applications to only a few minutes. Adding payloads - and the mechanisms used to manipula