6 accepted papers
This paper presents the design, development, and testing of a soft 3D-printed endoskeleton for arbitrary cable routing in tendon-driven soft actuators. The endoskeleton is embedded in a silicone body, and it is fixed to the mold prior to the casting process. It enables tendons to be placed through p
This paper presents the design, development, and testing of a soft 3D-printed endoskeleton for arbitrary cable routing in tendon-driven soft actuators. The endoskeleton is embedded in a silicone body, and it is fixed to the mold prior to the casting process. It enables tendons to be placed through p…
Plant cells expand and elongate. Their cumulative actuation defines organ morphing. Inspired by this modular transformability, this study proposes a modular concept for growing robots that will be able to grow by adding at their tip Transformable Modules (TMs). We provide a two-module implementation…
This paper proposes a methodology to investigate soil penetration requirements to extract specifications for designing robotic soil excavators and explorers. To this purpose, a three-dimensional (3-D) numerical model based on the Discrete Element Method (DEM) is proposed to simulate an intruder pene
This paper presents a new material deposition strategy for developing a growing robot capable of building its own body. The growing robot is inspired by plant growth and is based on a 3D printer-like mechanism. The plotting of a filament near the tip allows the forward movement of the robot and resu…
In this paper, we present a study on peculiar plant root movements, named circumnutations, adopted by plants as an efficient strategy to penetrate the soil and implemented in robotic roots to improve their performance in exploration tasks. The robotic root is able to bend and interact with soil owin