13 accepted papers
Unmanned planetary rovers have traversed kilometers of Lunar and Martian terrain while performing valuable science. However, they still face mobility challenges including steep slopes and unstable soil that can entrap vehicles, as demonstrated by NASA's Spirit rover. Vehicles on Earth can depend on
Robot performance has advanced considerably both in and out of the factory, however in tightly constrained, unknown environments such as inside a jet engine or the human heart, current robots are less adept. In such cases where a borescope or endoscope can’t reach, disassembly or surgery are costly.…
Latch-mediated spring-actuation (LaMSA) is utilized in a majority of jumping robots for its ability to slowly load and quickly release energy to generate high-power movement. Such mechanisms are found in robots that jump off of solid surfaces and even off of water. However, no robot currently employ…
Actuators that apply tension forces are widely applicable in robotics. In many applications of tensile actuators, a large stroke length, high force, and small, lightweight device are important. For these requirements, the best current solution is a winch, which uses a rotating shaft to pull lightwei
Continuum robots have high degrees of freedom and the ability to safely move in constrained environments. One class of soft continuum robot is the “vine” robot. This type of robot extends from its tip by everting or unfurling new material, driven by internal body pressure. Most vine robot examples s
Soft, tip-extending, pneumatic "vine robots" that grow via eversion are well suited for navigating cluttered environments. Two key mechanisms that add to the robot’s functionality are a tip-mounted retraction device that allows the growth process to be reversed, and a tip-mounted camera that enables…
Soft, tip-extending "vine" robots offer a unique mode of inspection and manipulation in highly constrained environments. For practicality, it is desirable that the distal end of the robot can be manipulated freely, while the body remains stationary. However, in previous vine robots, either the shape…
A fundamental challenge in the field of modular and collective robots is balancing the trade-off between unit-level simplicity, which allows scalability, and unit-level functionality, which allows meaningful behaviors of the collective. At the same time, a challenge in the field of soft robotics is…
Soft robots offer advantages over rigid robots in adaptability, robustness to uncertainty, and human safety. However, realizing soft actuators for these robots is still a challenge. We present a simple, highly conformable pneumatic artificial muscle made of a thin, single layer of woven, bias-cut fa
Soft, tip-extending devices, or “vine robots,” are a promising new paradigm for navigating cluttered and confined environments. Because they lengthen from their tips, there is little relative movement of the body with the environment, and the compressible nature of the device allows it to pass throu…
Energy harvesting is an attractive alternative to carrying onboard power for mobile robots, especially for long duration missions. While solar is a powerful option, alternatives are needed for situations where direct sunlight is unavailable. One intriguing concept was proposed in the 17th century to…
In robotics, high gear reductions are often required when using an electromagnetic motor to drive revolute joints, as in a humanoid robot. Strain wave gears (SWGs), also known as harmonic drives, are often used. However, these transmissions are relatively expensive and have a fixed gear ratio. Here,
Mobile robots of all shapes and sizes move through the air, water, and over ground. However, few robots can move through the ground. Not only are the forces resisting movement much greater than in air or water, but the interaction forces are more complicated. Here we propose a soft robotic device th…