14 accepted papers
Most existing vision-language manipulation research targets rigid robotic arms, whose fixed morphology limits adaptability in cluttered or confined spaces. Soft robotic arms offer an appealing alternative due to their deformability, but confront challenges such as unreliable proprioception and distr…
Vision-based tactile soft sensors are increasingly applied to robotic perception and manipulation by leveraging high-resolution imaging during contact with environmental surfaces, thereby enabling more adaptable and robust inter-actions.Nonetheless, ensuring optimal contact force to achieve uniform,…
Buoyancy systems play a vital role in the efficient movement and control of deep-sea robots. Traditional buoyancy systems for these robots rely on high-pressure hydraulic pumps and heavy pressure-resistant shells, resulting in notable increases in size, mass, and cost. Consequently, there is an urge
Single-medium, multi-degree-of-freedom robots often face limitations in aerial-aquatic tasks due to structural and weight constraints, which compromise their mobility in both air and water. To address this, we introduce a 6-degree-of-freedom fully actuated aerial-aquatic robot that employs thrust ve
Shape memory alloy (SMA) is widely employed in developing actuators. However, the lack of sensing capabilities limits its application. This study presents a sensing-actuation integrated device based on SMA and triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), achieving tactile sensing while maintaining the actuat
Net-winged midge larvae (genus Liponeura) can achieve robust attachment and crawl on the slippery surface in the fast stream with their powerful abdominal suckers. The rigid spine-like structures distributed in the sucker cavity called microtrichia, have been proven to be crucial in the adhesion pro…
Humans can perceive and interact with their surroundings through multiple senses. For intelligent robots, multimodal sensors are crucial for them to perceive and understand the environment. In this work, we propose a multi-layered flexible multimodal sensor based on laser-induced graphene, capable o…
This paper proposes a new adaptive control method with viscoelastic hysteresis compensation for high-precision tracking control of dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs). A direct inverse feedforward compensator is constructed by using a modified Prandtl-Ishlinskii model for compensating hysteresis n…
When talking about soft robots, softness is considered the most important feature, which brings dexterity and safety in interactive tasks with humans and environments. Such softness sometimes limits the real application of soft robots because load capability and rigidity are widely needed on many oc
Net-winged midge larvae (genus Liponeura) can achieve robust attachment and crawl on the slippery surface in the fast stream. This remarkable capability is endowed by the rapid and reversible adhesive suckers on their abdomen. Previous studies reveal that two components play essential roles for adhe
The miniature soft robots have many promising applications, including micro-manipulations, endoscopy, and microsurgery, etc. Nevertheless, it remains challenging to fabricate a miniatured robot device that is thin, flexible, and can perform multimodal locomotor mobility with sensory capacity. In thi
Remoras employ their adhesive discs to rapidly attach to and detach from a wide range of marine surfaces. By analyzing high-speed images of remoras' (Echeneis naucrates) hitchhiking behavior, we describe the fish's detachment mechanism as a lip curling up to break the seal between the disc and subst…
This paper presents a soft actuator embedded with conductive liquid metal and shape memory epoxy (SME) which function together to enable self-sensing, tunable mechanical degrees of freedom (DoF), and variable stiffness. We embedded thermoplastic shape memory epoxy in the bottom portion of the actuat…
Fish caudal fin is a prominent example of biological propulsion, in which the caudal peduncle, fin rays and fin membrane together form a dynamic locomotory system. In this paper, we developed a bio-robotic model to mimic the caudal fin structure and kinematics of Bluegill Sunfish (Lepomis macrochiru…