12 accepted papers
In this letter, we will discuss the design, modelling, and estimation of load based on the shape of a newly developed parallel continuum robot called TriRod. The proposed kinematic architecture consists of three flexible rods attached at their lower extremity to three rotating actuators. The robot i
This letter presents a method intended for the estimation of external force and moment applied at the tip of thin rods using vision-based shape measurements, with a view to be applied on continuum robots. A versatile vision process is developed that does not require any additional markers nor sensor
This article presents a new robot concept dedicated to fast and energy-efficient waste sorting applications. This parallel robot can provide at the same time the three translations in space (3-DoF) and the opening/closing of a built-in gripper (1 additional DoF). The movement of the clamp is enabled
Parallel Continuum Robots (PCR) have received a lot of attention in recent years. This paper presents a new 6-degrees-of-freedom PCR derived from the conventional 3-PPSR parallel manipulator. This robot is driven by three limbs consisting of two flexible rods each and replacing the spherical and rev…
In many cases, soft and continuum robots represent an interesting alternative to articulated robots because they have the advantages of miniaturization capability, safer interactions with humans and often simpler fabricating and integration. However, these benefits are usually considered to arise at
Two-fingered manipulation robotic systems are widely used in many application sand notably at small scales. The commonly employed solution is based on the attachment of a gripper on a robot. This paper introduces a new eight degrees of freedom (DoF) mechanism intended for two-fingered dexterous mani…
This paper presents preliminary results of a new robotic wrist for minimally invasive surgery. This wrist is a high-dexterity miniature robot, able to provide simultaneously the grasping/cutting (1-DoF) and rotations capabilities with 3-DoF. The grasping function is insured by the folding of the top…
This paper proposes the design of a vision-guided control law for microrobotic-assisted biomedical applications. More precisely, the developed control law is to servo an optical coherence tomography (OCT) system in real-time to carry out repetitive optical biopsy tasks. The OCT images are simultaneo
High accuracy is a necessary condition for reliable performance of micropositioning stages (MPSs). However, there are various sources of errors that affect their precision. Characterization is a prior step to calibration for compensating systematic errors so as to improve the positioning accuracy. I
Recently, high resolution visual methods based on direct-phase measurement of periodic patterns has been proposed with successful applications to microrobotics. This paper proposes a new implementation of direct-phase measurement methods to achieve 3-DoF (degrees of freedom) visual servoing. The pro…
In the photovoltaic solar cell industry as in the semiconductor industry, efforts to reduce the thickness of silicon wafers are in progress. Wafer damage and breakage during handling can lead to unacceptable yields and alternative solutions have to be proposed. This paper presents a modular contact-…
Microassembly represents a very promising solution to microproducts and complex Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) fabrication. Since, in the case of teleoperated assembly, an operator is the main source of errors, there is a great interest in microassembly automation. Its main issue consists i…