6 accepted papers
Robots in the real world experience wear and tear, leading to changing system dynamics. This challenge is particularly exacerbated for non-rigid systems such as soft robots or robotic systems made of metamaterials with hysteresis. This setting results in a challenging problem for most learning-based
There is significant interest in creating compliant modular robots that can change their volume. Inspired by how biological cells move, these systems can potentially combine the resilience of modular robotics with the increased environmental interactions of soft robotics. However, current versions h
The success of hybrid suction + parallel-jaw grippers in the Amazon Robotics/Picking Challenge have demonstrated the effectiveness of multimodal grasping approaches. However, existing multimodal grippers combine grasping modes in isolation and do not incorporate the benefits of compliance found in s…
Compliant robotic grippers are more robust to uncertainties in grasping and manipulation tasks, especially when paired with tactile and proprioceptive feedback. Although considerable progress has been made towards achieving proprioceptive soft robotic grippers, current efforts require complex drivin…
Volume change has become a critical actuation method in robotics. However, the need for fluid flow or thermal processes to generate volume changes limits the durability, speed, and efficiency of these actuators. In this paper, we develop a new electromechanical actuator that volumetrically expands.…
Impact protection and vibration isolation are an important component of the mobile robot designer's toolkit; however, current damping materials are available only in bulk or molded form, requiring manual fabrication steps and restricting material property control. In this paper we demonstrate a new…