25 accepted papers
Advanced control algorithms are essential for enhancing the functionality of prosthetic hands, enabling them to operate in diverse conditions. This paper presents a Model Reference Adaptive Controller (MRAC) developed for a tendondriven soft continuum wrist, integrated into the ‘PRISMA HAND II’ pros…
Human collaboration with robots requires flexible role adaptation, enabling the robot to switch between an active leader and a passive follower. Effective role switching depends on accurately estimating human intentions, which is typically achieved through external force analysis, nominal robot dyna
Friction in compact, geared actuators remains a primary barrier to transparency in upper-limb exoskeletons, especially near zero velocity and during frequent reversals. A momentum-based estimation framework is developed and evaluated on a two-DoF active device (modified EDUExo), where joint friction…
Safety is of utmost importance in surgical robots, as they operate in a complex and dynamic environment that directly impacts the patient’s health based on the surgical procedure’s success. One of the main difficulties in the control of surgical manipulators is in efficiently encoding dynamic nonlin…
Modeling and controlling the musculoskeletal system are crucial for understanding human motor functions, optimizing human-robot interaction, and developing embodied intelligence. However, existing musculoskeletal models are mainly limited to specific body parts and muscle groups, and still face chal
This paper presents a three-dimensional (3D) control framework for bevel-tip steerable needles that combines model predictive control (MPC) with hierarchical supervisory logic. The MPC layer uses a reduced-order two-mode switching model to generate the desired control actions, while the supervisory
This paper presents a comparative analysis of model-based control strategies for a Bionic Ankle Tensegrity Exoskeleton (BATE), designed to emulate the self-stress equilibrium and self-supporting characteristics of the human ankle biotensegrity structure. Model-based control strategies are convention
This paper proposes a novel Tensegrity-Based Fracture Reduction Robot (TFRR) designed to enhance the safety and efficacy of orthopedic procedures through integrated force-sensing and control capabilities. Inspired by the biomechanics of skeletal muscles, the robot adopts a tensegrity architecture th
During certain human-robot collaboration tasks, the operator interacts with the robot by hand guidance to adjust the end-effector pose for spatial operations. The rotational operation is less intuitive to humans than translation. In fact, imagining the path to the target orientation is more challeng…
Soft continuum sections are widely used in robotic mechanisms for achieving dexterous motions. However, most available designs of soft continuum sections cannot support payload during a motion. This paper presents a development of a novel soft robotic wrist section for a prosthetic hand named ‘PRISM…
The differential mechanism can reduce the number of actuators and efficiently distribute force or power. We proposed a novel multiport output twisted string actuator (MO-TSA) with self-differential mechanism that employs a single actuator to achieve multiport outputs. The differential MO-TSA is adap…
The design of a physics-based dynamic simulator of a robot requires to properly integrate the robot kinematic and dynamic properties in a virtual environment. Naturally, the closer is the integrated information to the real robot properties, the more accurate the simulator predicts the real robot beh
This paper presents a novel autonomous endoscope control method for the dVRK's Endoscopic Camera Manipulator (ECM), which allows the camera to track the surgical instruments on the Patient Side Manipulator (PSM). An Image-based Visual Servoing (IBVS) is enforced by the addition of a visibility const…
In this study, a rigid robot is hybridized with a soft part to improve its properties of relative positioning and safe interaction. While the design of the device is quite simple, the kinematics, on the other hand, becomes complex. Pre-operative planning of such a robot is a challenge that is faced
Humans in contrast to robots are excellent in performing fine manipulation tasks owing to their remarkable dexterity and sensorimotor organization. Enabling robots to acquire such capabilities, necessitates a framework that not only replicates the human behaviour but also integrates the multi-sensor…
Modern robots act in dynamic and partially unknown environments where path replanning can be mandatory if changes in the environment are observed. Task-prioritized control strategies are well known and effective solutions to ensure local adaptation of robot behaviour. The highest priority in a stack…
Recently, underactuated robotic hands have been exploited for dexterous in-hand manipulation, after having been proven efficient in performing versatile adaptive grasps. However, the reported in-hand manipulation skills are usually associated with parasitic motion, which may complicate control and a
In robot-aided surgery, during the execution of typical bimanual procedures such as dissection, surgical tools can collide and create serious damage to the robot or tissues. The da Vinci robot is one of the most advanced and certainly the most widespread robotic system dedicated to minimally invasiv
During suturing tasks performed with minimally invasive surgical robots, configuration singularities and joint limits often force surgeons to interrupt the task and re-grasp the needle using dual-arm movements. This yields an increased operator's cognitive load, time-to-completion and performance de…
Polyp dissection requires very accurate detection of the region of interest and high-precision cutting with adequate safety margins. Robot-assisted polyp dissection is a solution to accomplish high-quality intervention. This paper proposes a method to constrain the robot to follow an accurate dissec…
Bio-inspired designs are motivated by efficiency, adaptability, and robustness of biological systems' dynamic behaviors in complex environment. Despite progress in design, the lack of sensorimotor and learning capabilities is the main drawback of humanlike manipulation systems. Dimensionality reduct
In laparoscopic minimally invasive robotic surgery, a teleoperated robot is interposed between the patient and the surgeon. Despite the robot aid, the manipulation capabilities of surgical instruments are far from those of the human hand. In this letter, we want to make a step forward toward robotic
During robot-aided surgical interventions, the surgeon can be benefitted from the application of virtual fixtures (VFs). Though very effective, this technique is very often not practicable in unstructured surgical environments. In order to comply with the environmental deformation, both the VF geome
In this letter, a new sensorized flexible skin has been used to enhance safety and intuitiveness of physical human-robot interaction (HRI) in applications where both intentional and unintentional contacts may occur. The new technological contribution with respect to other skin sensors consists of th
In this work, a synergy-based reinforcement learning algorithm has been developed to confer autonomous grasping capabilities to anthropomorphic hands. In the presence of high degrees of freedom, classical machine learning techniques require a number of iterations that increases with the size of the…