17 accepted papers
Soft–rigid tendon-driven robotic hands are widely adopted due to their simple fabrication and effective compliance, enabling robust and adaptive grasping. However, achieving dexterity, such as in-hand manipulation, remains challenging because actuation systems typically constrain finger trajectories…
In this work, we investigate how a state-of-the-art grasp planner based on deep reinforcement learning performs when applied to a soft-rigid gripper in a decluttering task. The gripper, called Soft ScoopGripper, is endowed with a rigid scoop-shaped part that facilitates the interaction with the envi…
Food handling is a challenging task for robotic grippers, as it requires to manipulate highly deformable and fragile items, that can be easily damaged. Moreover, ingredients for the preparation of the different dishes are usually stored in small containers that are often not easily accessible. This…
In this letter, we propose a physics-based framework to exploit magnets in robotic manipulation. More specifically, we suggest equipping soft and underactuated hands with magnetic elements, which can generate a magnetic actuation able to synergistically interact with tendon-driven and pneumatic actu
This letter introduces a collaborative gripper designed for safe interactions during wearing operations. In a robotic system helping people to get dressed, two main goals have to be achieved: <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">i)</i> the
In this paper, we present a methodology to design soft-rigid grippers able to perform different manipulation tasks. The main idea is the introduction of wave-shaped hinges whose geometrical parameters can be designed to achieve different three-dimensional impedance characteristics. This allows one t…
The aim of this letter is to introduce the concept of bilateral haptic cooperation as a novel paradigm for human-robot cooperative tasks. The approach is demonstrated with a system composed of a soft gripper and a wearable interface. The soft gripper, called CoGripper, has been designed to guarantee
This letter introduces Mag-Gripper, a novel robotic gripper specifically designed for autonomous clothing manipulation. It is capable of improving grasp repeatability, and precision, compensating uncertainties in the target grasping locations. We propose to approach the autonomous clothing manipulat
Augmented reality (AR) enriches our physical world with digital content and media, such as three-dimensional models and videos, overlaying in real time the camera view of our smartphone, tablet, laptop, or glasses. Despite the recent massive interest for this technology, it is still not possible to
In this study, we present an efficient mathematical representation of soft robotic fingers based on screw theory. Then, we show how the model and its main properties can be exploited in the design phase, and we present an application for an underactuated tendon-driven gripper with a modular structur
Underactuated and compliant hands, frequently referred to as soft hands, have been recently proposed to overcome common issues of multifingered robotic hands. Although several prototypes have been developed, there is still a lack of systematic ways to model and control these devices to get grasps ex
In this letter, we propose a method to design tendon-driven underactuated hands whose fingertips can track a predefined trajectory, when actuated. We focus on passively compliant hands composed of deformable joints and rigid links. We first introduce a procedure to determine suitable joints stiffnes
In this work, we propose a method to compute the stiffness of flexible joints and its realization in order to let the fingers track a certain predefined trajectory. We refer to tendon-driven, underactuated and passively compliant hands composed of deformable joints and rigid links. Specific stiffnes…
Robot teams require planning and adaptive capabilities in order to perform cooperative manipulation tasks in dynamic or unstructured environments. Since these capabilities are inherent to humans, it is suitable to consider human-robot team teleoperation for cooperative manipulation where a single hu…
Bilateral telemanipulation refers to frameworks in which a human operator manipulates a master robotic interface and a slave robotic device emulates the behavior of the master, while haptic feedback is provided to the operator. For multi-contact bilateral teleoperation wc intend master and slave sys…
This letter presents the Soft-SixthFinger, a wearable robotic extra-finger designed to be used by chronic stroke patients to compensate for the missing hand function of their paretic limb. The extra-finger is an underactuated modular structure worn on the paretic forearm by means of an elastic band.
In this paper we present a mathematical framework to describe the interaction between compliant hands and environmental constraints during grasping tasks. In the proposed model, we considered compliance at wrist, joint and contact level. We modeled the general case in which the hand is in contact wi…