8 accepted papers
Soft robotic wearables, with lightweight and flexible actuation, have shown promising results in assistive applications. However, it remains unclear whether they can be made fully comfortable and suitable for everyday use. In this study, we introduce a clothing-type soft robotic wearable embedded wi
Developing shape-changing systems is challenging, and origami offers a unique approach by transforming 2D planes into 3D structures. While existing active reconfigurable origami systems enable functional changes—such as mechanical tuning, multi-modal locomotion, and adaptive structures—they often su
Wearable robots should be comfortable; however, there is lack of research on wear comfort for wearable robots has been conducted. This study aimed to evaluate the comfort of wearable soft robot platforms designed for walking assistance. We proposed clothing-based wearable robot platforms that priori
Miniaturization of robotic grippers enables precise manipulation of small-size objects. However, most microgrippers are actuated by rigid actuators, and thus retain challenges such as micro-fabrication, complex structure, and lack of compliance. Here, we present a compliant microgripper driven by a…
Shape memory alloy (SMA) has superior actuation capability over the limit of the scale. However, inherently low controllability is a primary issue that hinders practical usage. To address this challenge, this paper presents an SMA-based artificial muscle actuator capable of the displacement sensing…
This paper develops a custom motion capture system that uses vision-based methods to rapidly and accurately track the body and leg position/orientation of a 1.43g legged microrobot, the Harvard Ambulatory MicroRobot (HAMR). Two new generalized metrics for quantifying locomotion performance are defin…
In this paper, we propose a new shape-shifting system. Shape-shifting is achieved by the integration of arranged identical transformable units. These are self-folding origami modules that transform their shape from a cubic to a flat shape, and vice versa, similarly to a three-dimensional (3D) morphi
The agility and ease of control make a quadrotor aircraft an attractive platform for studying swarm behavior, modeling, and control. The energetics of sustained flight for small aircraft, however, limit typical applications to only a few minutes. Adding payloads - and the mechanisms used to manipula