27 accepted papers
Tendon-driven robotic hands face a fundamental “Triple Trade-Off” among high force control bandwidth, low mechanical impedance, and precise force estimation. This extended abstract presents a novel variable-stiffness tension sensor designed to overcome these conflicting requirements. By integrating …
Robotic grippers have been extensively developed to enable stable and efficient object manipulation across diverse applications. While soft grippers offer high adaptability and safety, their performance remains constrained by an inherent trade-off between flexibility and load-bearing capacity. This …
Twisted String Actuators (TSAs) are promising alternatives to conventional gear-based transmissions due to their high reduction ratios and compact form factors. However, practical limitations such as nonlinear hysteresis, limited stroke, and inherently unidirectional motion hinder their deployment i
Twisted String Actuators (TSAs) are promising alternatives to conventional gear-based transmissions due to their high reduction ratios and compact form factors. However, practical limitations such as nonlinear hysteresis, limited stroke, and inherently unidirectional motion hinder their deployment i…
Conventional robotic grippers relying on external force sensors or high gear-ratio actuators suffer from high mechanical impedance and limited control bandwidth. To address these limitations, this study proposes a novel 9-DOF, three-fingered Direct-Drive Differential (DDD) gripper that integrates DD…
We encounter large-scale environments where both structured and unstructured spaces coexist, such as on campuses. In this environment, lighting conditions and dynamic objects change constantly. To tackle the challenges of large-scale mapping under such conditions, we introduce DiTer++, a diverse ter
This paper presents a novel spherical target-based LiDAR-camera extrinsic calibration method designed for outdoor environments with multi-robot systems, considering both target and sensor corruption. The method extracts the 2D ellipse center from the image and the 3D sphere center from the pointclou
This letter presents a practical design implementation of 4-bar linkage-based compact and continuously variable active transmission (CCVAT) specifically tailored for the form factor of a robotic finger. The proposed CCVAT aims to solve the two major limitations of conventional linkage-based continuo
This letter presents a novel actuation mechanism that combines a continuously variable transmission (CVT) mechanism with a variable stiffness actuator (VSA) for highly dynamic robot systems such as legged robots. The CVT effectively changes the input-output transmission ratio of the system, thereby
Presents corrections to the article “Design, Modeling, and Control of a Coaxially Aligned Steerable (COAST) Guidewire Robot”.
This letter presents a design framework and novel control strategy for a compact coaxial magnetic-gear-based actuation module suitable for small-to-mid-sized mechanical and robotic applications. The proposed actuation module adopts a non-contact magnetic coupling mechanism to transmit rotational pow
Place recognition using SOund Navigation and Ranging (SONAR) images is an important task for simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) in underwater environments. This paper proposes a robust and efficient imaging SONAR-based place recognition, SONAR context, and loop closure method. Unlike previ…
Footnote in [1] missed a sentence that “Edgar Lee and Hangyeol Song contributed equally to this work.” during the editing process. The correct footnote is in this letter.
This letter presents a novel concept of a <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">non-contact</i> variable transmission mechanism using a coaxial magnetic gear. Conventional variable transmissions have provided a function of a robust transmis
Amputees suffer from the weight, insufficient power, and uncomfortable control methods of their prostheses. Recent studies have introduced many ideas for both hardware and software to tackle these problems. In this letter, the authors introduce a preliminary platform of a robotic prosthetic hand sys
Input-output transmission ratio shifting mechanisms provide a variable transmission ratio, which effectively expands a speed-force operating range of actuators. Although it is the most effective solution to increase the performance of robotic systems, its application to compact robotic systems still…
Presents corrections to the above named paper.
This paper presents the mechanism and design of a robotically steerable catheter system for percutaneous and minimally invasive treatment of mitral regurgitation. One of the main causes of mitral regurgitation is an impaired mitral valve topology, that results in severe heart-related diseases. Repai…
Cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) can severely impact hand motor and sensory function, and accordingly, patients with SCI are often unable to complete basic everyday tasks without assistance. In recent years, there has been an increase in hand exoskeleton research due to their distinct advantages fo…
The combination of a dexterous continuum robot and magnetic resonance imaging can potentially improve surgical precision and minimize brain manipulation in a minimally invasive neurosurgical procedure. In this work, a seven degree-of-freedom (DoF) continuum neurosurgical robot was developed. The mai…
Manual navigation of a guidewire is the first step in endovascular interventions. However, this procedure is time consuming with uncertain results due to tortuous vascular anatomy. This paper introduces the design of a novel COaxially Aligned STeerable (COAST) guidewire robot that is 0.40 mm in diam
This article presents a hand exoskeleton using selfsealing suction cup modules to assist and simplify various grasping tasks. Robotic hands, grippers, and hand rehabilitation exoskeletons require complex motion planning and control algorithms to manipulate various objects, which increases system com
Reduced hand function in spinal cord injury (SCI) patients is commonly associated with a lower quality of life and limits the autonomy of the patient because he/she cannot perform most tasks independently. Robotic rehabilitation exoskeletons have been introduced as a method for assisting in hand fun
Endovascular and endoscopic surgical procedures require micro-scale and meso-scale continuum robotic tools to navigate complex anatomical structures. In numerous studies, fiber Bragg grating (FBG) based shape sensing has been used for measuring the deflection of continuum robots on larger scales, bu
Mitral regurgitation is one of the most common heart diseases caused by ventricular dysfunction or anatomic abnormality of the mitral valve. The fundamental treatment for mitral regurgitation is to repair/replace the mitral valve through open-heart surgery which is risky and requires more time to re…
Hydrocephalus in the pediatric population is often treated with endoscopic procedures, in which a rigid endoscope provides a working channel and needed visualization for brain manipulation. The lack of flexible and steerable endoscopic tools limits the ability of the surgeon to conduct complex opera…
In this work, we propose a voice-controlled hand rehabilitation device driven by exotendons. A smartphone-based voice recognition system interprets user intention and is utilized for various grasping tasks. A bio-inspired tendon routing mechanism provides four-degrees-of-freedom (DoFs) across the th…