17 accepted papers
Soft robotic grippers offer advantages over rigid end effectors but are typically coupled to a rigid robot for locomotion. In contrast, this paper details a soft robot for both locomotion and grasping. The system is a type of boundaryconstrained granular swarm robot, which is composed of a closed-lo
Connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs) can provide benefits over individual vehicles for precise navigation, especially in GNSS-denied environments. CAV collaboration can enhance estimation accuracy, but the safety of collaborative localization in the presence of undetected sensor faults remains under
Soft robots possess unique capabilities for adapting to the environment and interacting with it safely. However, their deformable nature also poses challenges for controlling their movement. In particular, the large deformations of a soft robot make it difficult to localize its individual body parts…
This paper describes Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) techniques for mobile soft robots using on-board local sensors. The paper focuses on planar boundary-constrained swarms, which are comprised of identical modular sub-units, each flexibly connected to its neighbor. The sub-units themse…
In this letter, we introduce a new approach for soft robot shape formation and morphing using approximate distance fields. The method uses concepts from constructive solid geometry, R-functions, to construct an approximate distance function to the boundary of a domain in <inline-formula xmlns:mml="h
As more robots, such as autonomous vehicles, are deployed in life-critical situations it is imperative to consider safety, and in particular, localization safety. While it would be ideal to guarantee localization safety without having to modify the environment, this is not always possible and one ma
Compared to traditional grippers, soft grippers can typically grasp a wider range of objects, including ones that are soft, fragile, or irregularly shaped, but at the cost of a relatively low gripping force. To increase gripping force for soft grippers, this research presents a gripper with an integ
This paper presents a method to validate localization safety for a preplanned trajectory in a given environment. Localization safety is defined as integrity risk and quantified as the probability of an undetected localization failure. Integrity risk differs from previously used metrics in robotics i…
Localization safety, or integrity risk, is the probability of undetected localization failures and a common aviation performance metric used to verify a minimum accuracy requirement. As autonomous robots become more common, applying integrity risk metrics will be necessary to verify localization per
This paper presents a new method to efficiently monitor localization safety in mobile robots. Localization safety is quantified by measuring the system's integrity risk, which is a well-known aviation performance metric. However, aviation integrity monitoring solutions almost exclusively rely on the…
This paper presents a Model Predictive Controller (MPC) that uses navigation integrity risk as a constraint. Navigation integrity risk accounts for the presence of faults in localization sensors and algorithms, an increasingly important consideration as the number of robots operating in life and mis…
This paper presents a new methodology to quantify robot localization safety by evaluating integrity risk, a performance metric widely used in open-sky aviation applications that has been recently extended to mobile ground robots. Here, a robot is localized by feeding relative measurements to mapped…
This paper describes the design of a new integrity risk prediction/monitoring methodology for robot localization that uses feature extraction and data association algorithms. The work specifically addresses incorrect association faults when employing a local nearest neighbor data association algorit…
One of the constraints in the design of dry switchable adhesives is the compliance trade-off: compliant structures conform better to surfaces but are limited in strength due to high stored strain energy. In this work we study the effects of bending compliance on the shear adhesion pressures of hybri…
This paper introduces electrostatic and ultrasonic techniques to clean dust and other contaminants from the surface of a gecko-like, microstrutured adhesive. The result is a non-destructive, non-contact cleaning method that will afford robotic grippers, climbing robots, and perching robots the abili…
This paper introduces a new robotic gripper for flat surfaces based on a novel electrostatic/gecko-like adhesive. This unique gripping solution overcomes the shortcomings of vacuum grippers for part-handling by eliminating the need for a compressed air system and offering more rapid actuation, thus…
This paper details an autonomous perching and take-off method for a quadrotor micro air vehicle (MAV) using a novel dry adhesive gripper on smooth vertical walls. The gripper mechanism uses three directional dry adhesive pads in a triangular configuration. Each pad is equipped with a force sensor th…