38 accepted papers
Soft robotic grippers offer certain advantages for grasping objects and anchoring into environments compared to traditional rigid grippers. For instance, their conformability enables handling of delicate objects with simplified sensing and control, and their compliance allows them to be robust to im
‘‘Vine robots” are thin-walled, tubular, pneumatic soft robots that lengthen at their tips to navigate constrained and complex environments. Previous studies have already explored the mechanics of vine robot bodies and investigated applications for which the device is well-suited. However, these stu
Unmanned planetary rovers have traversed kilometers of Lunar and Martian terrain while performing valuable science. However, they still face mobility challenges including steep slopes and unstable soil that can entrap vehicles, as demonstrated by NASA's Spirit rover. Vehicles on Earth can depend on
The fields of soft and bio-inspired robotics promise to imbue synthetic systems with capabilities found in the natural world. However, many of these biological capabilities are yet to be realized. For example, vines in nature direct growth via localized responses embedded in the cells of the vine bo
Research in the area of photo-actuation is growing rapidly, yet there are few examples of photo-actuators with practical use cases. One potential application is for the control of intelligent electromagnetic surfaces, or two-dimensional arrays that could shape and control an incident electromagnetic…
Robot performance has advanced considerably both in and out of the factory, however in tightly constrained, unknown environments such as inside a jet engine or the human heart, current robots are less adept. In such cases where a borescope or endoscope can’t reach, disassembly or surgery are costly.…
Soft robotics is attractive for wearable applications that require conformal interactions with the human body. Soft wearable robotic garments hold promise for supplying dynamic compression or massage therapies to improve lymphatic and blood circulation. In this letter, we present a wearable robot ca
Latch-mediated spring-actuation (LaMSA) is utilized in a majority of jumping robots for its ability to slowly load and quickly release energy to generate high-power movement. Such mechanisms are found in robots that jump off of solid surfaces and even off of water. However, no robot currently employ…
Actuators that apply tension forces are widely applicable in robotics. In many applications of tensile actuators, a large stroke length, high force, and small, lightweight device are important. For these requirements, the best current solution is a winch, which uses a rotating shaft to pull lightwei
Continuum robots have high degrees of freedom and the ability to safely move in constrained environments. One class of soft continuum robot is the “vine” robot. This type of robot extends from its tip by everting or unfurling new material, driven by internal body pressure. Most vine robot examples s
As robotic technologies advance and robots move out of factories and labs into the real world, grip on a variety of surfaces (e.g. smooth or rough) in a variety of conditions (e.g. dry or wet) becomes increasingly important. Bioinspired "microspines" have been previously explored, but primarily for…
Many soft robots are capable of significantly changing their shape, an ability that can offer advantages in many applications. For instance, such a robot can flatten its body to fit under small gaps and expand to move over large obstacles. Further, because these shape changes are usually driven by a…
Soft, tip-extending, pneumatic "vine robots" that grow via eversion are well suited for navigating cluttered environments. Two key mechanisms that add to the robot’s functionality are a tip-mounted retraction device that allows the growth process to be reversed, and a tip-mounted camera that enables…
The properties of radio frequency electromagnetic systems can be manipulated by changing the 3D geometry of the system. Most reconfiguration schemes specify different conductive pathways using electrical switches in mechanically static systems, or they actuate and reshape a continuous metallic struc
Soft, tip-extending "vine" robots offer a unique mode of inspection and manipulation in highly constrained environments. For practicality, it is desirable that the distal end of the robot can be manipulated freely, while the body remains stationary. However, in previous vine robots, either the shape…
Soft robotic pneumatic grippers have been shown to be versatile, robust to impacts, and safe for use on delicate objects. One type, fluidic elastomer grippers, are characterized by fingers with an inextensible gripping surface backed by extensible pneumatic chambers; when inflated, this mismatch in…
A fundamental challenge in the field of modular and collective robots is balancing the trade-off between unit-level simplicity, which allows scalability, and unit-level functionality, which allows meaningful behaviors of the collective. At the same time, a challenge in the field of soft robotics is…
Tip-extending soft robots that “grow” via pneumatic eversion of their body material have demonstrated applications in exploration of cluttered environments. During growth, the motion and force of the robot tip can be controlled in three degrees of freedom using actuators that direct the tip in combi
Soft robots offer advantages over rigid robots in adaptability, robustness to uncertainty, and human safety. However, realizing soft actuators for these robots is still a challenge. We present a simple, highly conformable pneumatic artificial muscle made of a thin, single layer of woven, bias-cut fa
Soft, tip-extending devices, or “vine robots,” are a promising new paradigm for navigating cluttered and confined environments. Because they lengthen from their tips, there is little relative movement of the body with the environment, and the compressible nature of the device allows it to pass throu…
Energy harvesting is an attractive alternative to carrying onboard power for mobile robots, especially for long duration missions. While solar is a powerful option, alternatives are needed for situations where direct sunlight is unavailable. One intriguing concept was proposed in the 17th century to…
We present a pneumatic actuator capable of changing length by 1000%, applying both pushing and pulling forces, and independently modulating its length and stiffness. These characteristics are enabled by individually addressable internal and external chambers that work antagonistically against one an…
Mobility by growth is a new paradigm in robotic systems design and their applications in the real world. Soft, tip-extending, or “growing”, robots have potential applications including inspection and navigation in disaster scenarios. However, due to their growing capability, such robots create uniqu…
Soft robotics and pneumatic actuation present opportunities for lightweight wearable haptic devices that provide distributed touch feedback to the skin. Ideally, such devices would be easily donned and doffed, since permanent coverage of a large area of the skin is undesirable. Here we present the d…
For many types of robots, avoiding obstacles is necessary to prevent damage to the robot and environment. As a result, obstacle avoidance has historically been an important problem in robot path planning and control. Soft robots represent a paradigm shift with respect to obstacle avoidance because t…
Mobile robots of all shapes and sizes move through the air, water, and over ground. However, few robots can move through the ground. Not only are the forces resisting movement much greater than in air or water, but the interaction forces are more complicated. Here we propose a soft robotic device th…
Surgeries involving interaction with soft tissue like the brain need to minimize shear and normal forces that can cause tissue damage or hemorrhage. Other surgeries require the ability to follow a complex, curved path, such as through an intestine or to a kidney stone. This paper presents a soft cat…
Stroke is the leading cause of adult disability. Many robots have been developed to administer movement therapies or provide physical assistance to stroke survivors suffering from movement deficits. One effective approach has been to support the weight of the arm, offloading shoulder abductor muscle…
Free-flying robots have the potential to autonomously fulfill a wide range of tasks involving manipulation of objects in space. In this paper we study the design of a wrist mechanism for free-flying robots that are equipped with an adhesive gripper for attaching to objects and surfaces. The wrist an…
We present the design, modeling, and implementation of a novel pneumatic actuator, the Pneumatic Reel Actuator (PRA). The PRA is highly extensible, lightweight, capable of operating in compression and tension, compliant, and inexpensive. An initial prototype of the PRA can reach extension ratios gre…
We describe a new series pneumatic artificial muscle (sPAM) and its application as an actuator for a soft continuum robot. The robot consists of three sPAMs arranged radially around a tubular pneumatic backbone. Analogous to tendons, the sPAMs exert a tension force on the robot's pneumatic backbone,…
The Wolverine is a mobile, wearable haptic device designed for simulating the grasping of rigid objects in a virtual reality interface. In contrast to prior work on wearable force feedback gloves, we focus on creating a low cost and lightweight device that renders a force directly between the thumb…
Nearly all robotic grippers have one trait in common: they grasp objects with normal forces, either directly, or indirectly through friction. This method of grasping is effective for objects small enough for a given gripper to partially encompass. However, to grasp larger objects, significant grip f…
Perching on a vertical surface carries the risk of severe damage to the vehicle if the maneuver fails, especially if failure goes undetected. We present a detection method using an onboard 3-axis accelerometer to discriminate between perching success and failure. An analytical model was developed to…
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…
Adhesion quality sensing is critical to the performance of any robot that utilizes gecko-inspired dry adhesives for climbing, perching, or grasping. We present a 3-axis tactile sensor designed for this application that demonstrates performance on par with a large commercial load cell while being com…
The ability to carry large payloads could greatly increase the applications of small, low cost climbing robots. We present a linear inchworm gait that uses a single powerful actuator to climb. To make this gait possible, we leveraged two new methods of achieving controllable, anisotropic adhesion (o…
The controllable adhesives used by insects to both carry large loads and move quickly despite their small scale inspires the μTug robot concept. These are small robots that can both move quickly and use controllable adhesion to apply interaction forces many times their body weight. The adhesives ena…