28 accepted papers
Object manipulation is a fundamental challenge in robotics, where systems must balance trade-offs among manipulation capabilities, system complexity, and throughput. Distributed manipulator systems (DMS) use the coordinated motion of actuator arrays to perform complex object manipulation tasks, seei…
Soft robots utilize pneumatic actuation due to its high power density, ability to undergo large deformations, large force outputs, and compliance, which enables safe and flexible interactions between the robots and their environments. High frequency actuation holds the potential to enhance the inter
Robotic manipulators often face challenges in handling objects of different sizes and materials, limiting their effectiveness in practical applications. This issue is particularly pronounced when manipulating meter-scale objects or those with varying stiffness, as traditional gripping techniques and
(Semi-)autonomous robotic assistance in minimally invasive surgery has the potential to alleviate surgical staff shortage and decrease the workload of medical professionals. These robots must execute complex tasks within unpredictable and unstructured environments encountered during surgery. Althoug
Modular robots (MRs) consist of unique robots which interconnect and work as a collective to perform objectives. Coordinating these robots rely on robust communication, as modules moving independently can lead to damaging behaviour. We present a robust structure for modular robot communication, impl…
This article presents the novel modular version of the robotic platform Cellulo, a versatile handheld robot initially designed as an educational robot. The use of Cellulo in different contexts and applications over the years has highlighted the need for modularity. Modularity adds versatility by inc…
This letter presents closed-loop position control of a pneumatically actuated modular robotic platform “pneumagami” that can be stacked to enlarge work and design space for wearable applications. The module is a 3 degrees of freedom (DoF) parallel robot with two rotational and one translational moti
Stiffness variation and real-time position feedback are critical for any robotic system but most importantly for active and wearable devices to interact with the user and environment. Currently, for compact sizes, there is a lack of solutions bringing high-fidelity feedback and maintaining design an
Soft pneumatic actuators (SPAs) are highly desirable for interactive robotics applications owing to their unconventional properties like high compliance, safe human-machine interaction and adaptable design space. The SPA dynamic behaviour is governed by pneumatic supply systems (PSSs) consisting of
Origami robots composed of rigid parts with flexible joints have inherent compliance that enables deployment and reconfiguration for various shape adaptations. The major drawback of such mechanical compliance is its intrinsic softness and lack of controllability of this stiffness. In this work, we p…
The scope of this letter is to show the applicability of the Twisted String Actuators (TSAs) for lightweight, wearable and assistive robotic applications. To this aim, we have developed a novel surface electromyography (sEMG)-driven soft ExoSuit using the TSAs to perform both single and dual-arm elb
This paper presents a novel approach to fault tolerant reconfiguration of modular self-folding robots. Among various types of faults that probably occur in the modular system, we focus on the tolerance of complete actuation failure of active modules that might cause imprecise robotic motion and even…
Reconfigurable surfaces using robotic pixels can produce discretize 3D contours, shapes and motion patterns. In existing devices, the rendering resolution and richness of shapes and patterns are limited by the use of linear pixels that only produce single DoF (only change their extrusion/ height). C
Layer-by-layer manufacturing of composite mechanisms allows fast and cost-effective fabrication of customized robots in millimeter and centimeter scales which is promising for research fields that rely on frequent and numerous physical iterations. Due to the limited number of components that can be
Robotic origami design allows creating meso-scale robotic systems and mechanisms not limited by degrees of freedom, miniaturization and assembly downsides of conventional transmission mechanisms. However, unlike the traditional rigid approaches, robotic origami application has been limited by the co…
Soft actuators provide highly adaptable actuator options for applications in wearable devices, grippers, and mobile robots due to their inherent compliance. However, this compliance causes soft actuators to have virtually infinite degrees of freedom (DoF) of motion and challenges the accurate predic
Underwater swimming robots permit remote access to over 70% of the Earth's surface that is covered in water for a variety of scientific, environmental, tactical, or industrial purposes. Many practical applications for robots in this setting include sensing, monitoring, exploration, reconnaissance, o
Gripper adaptability to handle objects of different shape and size brings high flexibility to manipulation. Gripping flat, round, or narrow objects poses challenges to even the most sophisticated robotic grippers. Among various gripper technologies, the vacuum suction grippers provide design simplic
Origami-inspired machines are a promising approach to robotic transformation. In this letter, we present a new method for transformation that uses dynamic response to change the mountain-valley fold pattern. We propose a dynamic model and validate it through experimental characterization of sample m
Modular self-folding robots are versatile systems that can change their own shape from two-dimensional patterns at instant commands. This reconfigurability is commonly restrained by power limitation in autonomous environments, The robotic systems with insufficient torque may lead to inaccurate movem…
In robotics, controlling the stiffness of the joints that contribute to the robots' degree of freedom dictates the adaptability, versatility, and safety of the whole system. We can achieve variable stiffness or impedance in a robotic system purely by the control or by introducing new material or mec
Vacuum-powered Soft Pneumatic Actuator (V-SPA) Modules have been described to afford advantages for rapid development of reconfigurable, multi-DoF soft pneumatic robots powered by vacuum by reducing their logistical complexity, however they also present new challenges in the control of resulting sys…
Continuing research efforts in robot-assisted rehabilitation demand more adaptable and inherently soft wearable devices. A wearable rehabilitative device is required to follow the motion of the body and to provide assistive or corrective motions to restore natural movements. Providing the required l…
We present a fully edible pneumatic actuator based on gelatin-glycerol material. The actuator is monolithic, fabricated via a molding process, and measures 90 mm in length, 20 mm in width, and 17 mm in thickness. Thanks to the material mechanical characteristics similar to those of silicone elastome…
There are several challenges in down-sizing robots for transportation deployment, diversification of locomotion capabilities tuned for various terrains, and rapid and on-demand manufacturing. In this paper we propose an origami-inspired method of addressing these key issues by designing and manufact…
Various robotic applications including surgical instruments, wearable robots and autonomous mobile robots are often constrained with strict design requirements on high degrees of freedom (DoF) and minimal volume and weight. An intuitive design to meet these contradictory requirements is to embed loc…
The soft pneumatic actuators (SPAs) are a solution toward the highly customizable and light actuators with the versatility of actuation modes, and an inherent compliance. Such flexibility allows SPAs to be considered as alternative actuators for wearable rehabilitative devices and search and rescue…
Origami robots (Robogamis) use architecture to strategically activate different sets and sequence of actuators to achieve large variety of reconfigurable forms. Tribot is a unique mobile origami robot that can simultaneously choose between two modes of locomotion: jumping and crawling. When assemble…