31 accepted papers
Recent progress in stereo-based 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) SLAM has enabled small-scale robots, which are too small to carry depth cameras, to achieve localization and reconstruct photorealistic scenes with high-speed rendering. However, initializing 3D Gaussians from binocular vision still requir
Achieving autonomous navigation for biologically inspired jumping robots remains a long-standing challenge, due to the inherent instability of jumping motions and the limitations in onboard sensor capabilities. This paper proposes a skill-based hierarchical framework with dangerous action masking (S
Dataset search is a specialized information retrieval task. In the emerging scenario of Dataset Search with Examples (DSE), the user submits a query and a few target datasets that are known to be relevant as examples. The retrieved datasets are expected to be relevant to the query and also similar t
Improving the adaptability of small-sized quadruped robots has been a longstanding challenge in robotics. However, the weak whole-body coordination in existing small-sized quadruped robots limits their locomotion in many environments. In this work, we propose a teacher-student online learning framew
Magnetic helical microrobots have attracted considerable attraction in microscale targeted delivery due to their high propulsion efficiency and movement flexibility. However, for biomedical applications in unstructured and multibranched liquid environments, the capabilities of high swimming performa
This paper presents a robust visual SLAM system designed for small-scale quadruped robots (ViQu-SLAM) for accurate localization, especially to mitigate the issue of erroneous data association caused by moving objects in dynamic environments. The proposed approach leverages a selfadaptive framework t…
Embodying in vitro biological neural networks (BNNs) with robots to explore the rise of intelligence in these simpler models and to endow robots with biological intelligence has been attracting increasing attention in the fields of neuroscience and robotics. However, current research suffers from un
Jumping is a key locomotion for miniature robots, but it is difficult for a robot to jump a long distance without flipping. To solve this problem, we develop a miniature locust-inspired jumping robot, which has a body length of 10 cm and weight of 60 g. On the basis of the extracted skeletal muscle
Microfluidic printing provides a novel tool to facilitate the bulk assembly of cell-aligned microfibers for the fabrication of artificial skeletal muscle structure. However, due to the poor controllability for the deposition position of the microfiber, it is still difficult to realize the anisotropi
Most traditional ornithopters are equipped with active deformation wings for flight control. However, this inevitably results in redundant actuators and a complex mechanical structure, that reduce flight efficiency. According to the flight data of pigeons ( <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/
In this paper, we propose a system for real-time rat pose estimation based on stereo vision. The system is dedicated to robot-rat interaction research. First, we design a lightweight, high-resolution network (RRKDNet) for keypoint detection of the rat. The network is trained on a dataset of rat imag…
In this letter, we propose a motion generation strategy using imitation learning (IL) for biomimetic robots to interact with animals in a more natural manner. We previously developed a bioinspired spine mechanism allowing the robot to mimic rat motion closely. Thanks to the spine morphology, we esta
Whiskers of some animals, such as rats and cats, can actively sense stimuli from their surrounding environment. Such a capability is attractive for intelligent mobile robots. However, an artificial whisker with similar abilities has not been fully developed so that the robots acquire their surroundi
In this paper, we propose an automatic robot-rat interaction framework that enables a robotic rat to realize real-time localization, tracking and movement analysis of a laboratory rat. Specifically, we combine an object detector with stereo matching to achieve fast localization of the laboratory rat…
Fabricated cellular micro-scaffold that recapitulates natural extracellular matrix (ECM) has shown huge potential in the study of cell behaviors. However, the reproducing of the physiological morphology with high efficiency and accuracy in the micro-scaffold still remains as a major challenge. Here,
Many previous works have facilitated muscle cell (C2C12) alignment to form fiber-like cell structures. However, there still remains a challenge how to induce C2C12 myoblasts in the cell structures to differentiate into matured myocytes to form a functional muscle tissue, while external mechanical st…
Tissue engineering is trying to use modular tissue micro-rings to construct artificial biological microtubes as substitute of autologous tissue tubes to alleviate the shortage of donor sources. However, because of the lack of effective assembly strategies, it is still challenging to achieve high-spe…
The research on rare cells makes a significant contribution to biology research and medical treatment for the application of diagnostic operation as well as prognoses treatment. Therefore, sorting them from heterogeneous mixtures is crucial and valuable. Traditional cell sorting methods featured wit…
Social interaction between a robot and rats is important since the robot can generate reproducible social behaviors across trials. However, lacking internal state feedback from the rat makes current robot-rat interaction a very preliminary level comparing with rat-rat interaction. Previous biologica…
Microgrippers play a significant role in manipulation of micro-objects. To achieve dexterous and precise manipulation, a microgripper is required to be compactly designed and embedded with sensing feedback. Meanwhile, to convert the sensor position into displacement of the microgripper, the embedded…
The interaction test between a robotic rat and living rat is considered as a possible way to quantitatively characterize the rat sociality. In such robot-rat interactions, the robot should be designed to fully replicate a real rat in terms of morphological and behavioral characteristics. To address…
In micromanipulation, lots of methods have been developed to manipulate objects in microscale. However, few of them can be applied in both the transportation and the rotation of the micro objects. In this paper, we present a novel method to realize the non-contact transportation and rotation of the…
Helical structure assembled by hydrogel microfibers is significant for culture of smooth muscle cells. However, the helical structure is only fabricated at the macroscale, while the fabrication of helical microstructure is still a challenge due to the lack of assembly method. In this paper, we propo…
One of the main problems faced by land-based mobile robots is their locomotion performance on rough outdoor terrain. We focused on the navigation of grassy areas such as riversides and forests. These have many types of obstacles, which make robot locomotion difficult. Several studies have been condu
It is of great importance to pick up a single carbon nanotube (CNT) from a bulk of CNTs for nanodevice fabrication. In this study, we have proposed a nanorobotic manipulation system allowing automated pick-up of CNTs based on visual feedback. We utilize histogram normalization for automatic binariza…
In vitro tissues are significant biological substitute for drug test, cell morphogenesis exploration and organ transplantation. In this letter, a novel microrobotic bioassembly method is proposed to engineer 3-D cellular structure, which can be utilized to culture in vitro tissue with microstructura
Vascular-like microtube takes an important role in delivering oxygen and nutrient to keep cell alive in the generated tissue. In this paper, we present an automated micromanipulation system to assemble 2-D gel micro-rings to vascular-like microtubes by means of generating and controlling microbubble
Alginate hydrogel microfibers are a promising cell-laden module for three-dimensional (3-D) assembly to build cellular structures. However, it is still a challenge to manipulate them for microassembly. In this letter, we report a novel magnetic control method to handle this challenge. To enhance the
Fabrication of artificial blood vessels in micro scale significantly benefits the regeneration of functional human vascular networks. In this paper, we develop an efficient multi-microrobotic system with an innovative motorized sample holder (MSH) and two manipulators. Air is injected into the solut…
Environment recognition is an effective way for a mobile robot to move across rough terrain. In particular, this makes it possible to prevent a tiny mobile robot from getting stuck or turning over. Several studies have been conducted on environment recognition using a laser range finder or camera. H…
Due to the poor controllability in hydrogels, Hydrogels-based assembly to form larger 3D complex shapes is still a big challenge. In this paper, we have reported a novel “bottom-up” method to fabricate three-dimensional (3D) magnetic alginate microfibers (MAMs) assemblies with complex shapes. Specif…