11 accepted papers
Direct laser deposition, a specialized form of additive manufacturing, shows good potential in numerous high-value applications such as the repair of aeroengine blades. However, the traditional setup for this technique is bulky and not suited for in-situ repair, requiring the costly disassembly of t…
Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs), also recognized as artificial muscle, have been widely developed for the soft locomotion robot. With the complaint skeleton and miniaturized dimension, they are well suited for the narrow space inspection. In this work, we propose a novel low profile (1.1mm) an…
Direct laser deposition, a form of additive manufacturing, shows potential in numerous high-value applications such as aeroengine blade repair. However, conventional setups are bulky and unsuitable for in-situ repair, requiring costly engine disassembly. This letter presents a miniaturized high-repe
A multi-zone (typically 8×8) time-of-flight (ToF) sensor offers a low-cost, low-power, and compact solution for range measurement, making it ideal for specialized robotic applications. However, its low resolution limits its usability. Pairing a ToF sensor with a camera enhances depth perception and
Dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs), also recognised as artificial muscle, have been widely developed for the soft locomotion robot. With the complaint skeleton and miniaturised dimension, they are well suited for the narrow space inspection. In this work, we propose a novel low profile (1.1mm) an
With their flexible nature, continuum robots offer hyper-redundancy regarding their workspace; their backbone can take many shapes upon a single tip position and orientation. Deciphering which backbone shape to use under certain conditions is crucial to their operation, especially given the rise in
Continuum robots are flexible mechanisms that enable tasks in cluttered environments where conventional robots cannot operate. However, their few design parameters and task/manufacturing constraints leave small margins for optimization. In this paper, we expand the design space of continuum robots b
Continuum robots are able of in-situ inspection tasks in cluttered environments and narrow passages, where conventional robots and human operators cannot intervene. However, such intervention often requires the robot to interact with the environment, and the low stiffness and payload of continuum ro
Efficient path planning for hyper-redundant continuum and snake-like robots is a challenging task due to limited sensing capabilities, high computational loads, multiple possible solutions, and non-linear models. This letter presents a new approach to snake robot navigation and coiling, with an algo
In-situ aeroengine maintenance works (e.g. inspection, repair) are highly beneficial as it can significantly reduce currently accepted maintenance cycle which is extensive and costly due to the need to remove engines from the wing of an aircraft. However, feeding in/out via inspection ports and perf…
Automation of inspection and repair tasks on complex installations is gaining attention from industries with high-value assets such as aerospace, nuclear and marine. This paper reports on a five degrees of freedom robotic system capable of performing accurate and repeatable repair procedures through…