15 accepted papers
Handling fragile objects at high speeds presents a significant challenge. To address this challenge, researchers explored hybrid grippers and grippers with adjustable stiffness. However, grippers exhibiting anisotropic stiffness have received little attention. This paper presents an extreme case of …
This paper presents a single-motor underactuated gripper with variable stiffness, designed for food bin-picking tasks. The gripper employs highly compliant fingers that can passively adapt to cluttered environments and enclose target objects. Upon grasping, tendon-driven actuation increases structur…
Modeling environmental forces remains a critical challenge in the design and control of robots operating on granular terrain. In pushing locomotion, propulsion is generated by displacing a large number of particles; however, the resulting terrain deformation complicates accurate real-time force pred…
Soft robots have long been attractive to robotic engineers due to their remarkable dexterity; however, reports that standardize soft actuators into modularized off-shelf devices akin to rigid robots are still rare, and the mechanical efficiency of existing designs is still limited. This work identif…
Robotic end-effectors have been developed for various applications. Most of them are driven by electric or pneumatic actuator/actuators, which usually make the end-effector bulky and vulnerable due to the external cables and air tubes. In this study, we propose a novel passive robotic gripper with a…
Finite deformation is the principal actuation basis of elastomer-based pneumatic soft actuators. Desired deformation behavior is the key design requirement for such actuators. The objective of current study is to optimize the design of a flat shell gripper and to investigate its interaction with a c
Automation in the food services industry is not as developed as in the automotive and electrical industries. This may be because (1) the tasks involve high-speed operations in unstructured environments and (2) the lack of effective robotic end-effectors. In this letter, we focus on the automation of
In this paper, we propose a simple analytical model for pneu-net soft actuator. The model is based on Euler– Bernoulli finite strain hyperelastic thin cantilever beam theory. The deformation of the air chambers is modelled using infinitesimal strain membrane theory. The proposed theoretical model es…
A soft tactile fingertip was developed to provide the contact feedback on characteristics of an object for performing automatic assembly of electronic parts, such as a thin circuit board. However, designing a tactile fingertip with simple design and minimal number of sensors that can estimate orient
This letter proposes a sensor using conductive fabric that can detect proximity and contact by measuring the capacitance between the sensor and the surrounding environment. Due to the flexibility of the sensor used, it can be easily integrated with industrial robot arms to monitor proximity and cont
This study presented a prestressed soft gripper fabricated with 3-D printing technology. The gripper can realize a large contact area while grasping and simultaneously generate large initial opening without deflating the soft actuators. The soft actuator was 3-D printed as two separate parts: the so
This paper presents a new approach for active tactile sensation that utilizes soft morphological computation. This work is inspired by human finger's wet-induced wrinkles, which appear after a long time soaking in water, and has been indicated as an efficient means for enhancement of gripping in wet…
Soft robotics is an emerging field that focuses on the development and application of soft robots. Due to their highly deformable features, it is difficult to model and control such robots. In this paper, we proposed a simplified model to simulate a fluidic elastomer actuator (FEA). The model consis
A novel three axis force sensor, based on magnetic flux measurements, was used in the fingers of a gripper. The force sensor uses three Hall Effect sensors orthogonally placed at the base of a hemisphere made of silicon rubber. A neodymium permanent magnet was inside the hemisphere. When a force was…
Materials and textures identification is a desired ability for robots. Developing such systems require tactile sensors that have enough sensitivity and spatial resolution, and the computational intelligence to meaningfully interpret sensor data. This paper introduces a texture classification algorit…