96 research outputs found
A Lightweight Universal Gripper with Low Activation Force for Aerial Grasping
Soft robotic grippers have numerous advantages that address challenges in
dynamic aerial grasping. Typical multi-fingered soft grippers recently
showcased for aerial grasping are highly dependent on the direction of the
target object for successful grasping. This study pushes the boundaries of
dynamic aerial grasping by developing an omnidirectional system for autonomous
aerial manipulation. In particular, the paper investigates the design,
fabrication, and experimental verification of a novel, highly integrated,
modular, sensor-rich, universal jamming gripper specifically designed for
aerial applications. Leveraging recent developments in particle jamming and
soft granular materials, the presented gripper produces a substantial holding
force while being very lightweight, energy-efficient and only requiring a low
activation force. We show that the holding force can be improved by up to 50%
by adding an additive to the membrane's silicone mixture. The experiments show
that our lightweight gripper can develop up to 15N of holding force with an
activation force as low as 2.5N, even without geometric interlocking. Finally,
a pick and release task is performed under real-world conditions by mounting
the gripper onto a multi-copter. The developed aerial grasping system features
many useful properties, such as resilience and robustness to collisions and the
inherent passive compliance which decouples the UAV from the environment.Comment: 21 pages, 19 figures; corrected affiliation
The Future of Humanoid Robots
This book provides state of the art scientific and engineering research findings and developments in the field of humanoid robotics and its applications. It is expected that humanoids will change the way we interact with machines, and will have the ability to blend perfectly into an environment already designed for humans. The book contains chapters that aim to discover the future abilities of humanoid robots by presenting a variety of integrated research in various scientific and engineering fields, such as locomotion, perception, adaptive behavior, human-robot interaction, neuroscience and machine learning. The book is designed to be accessible and practical, with an emphasis on useful information to those working in the fields of robotics, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, computational methods and other fields of science directly or indirectly related to the development and usage of future humanoid robots. The editor of the book has extensive R&D experience, patents, and publications in the area of humanoid robotics, and his experience is reflected in editing the content of the book
Investigating the Design and Manufacture of PneuNet Actuators as a Prosthetic Tongue for Mimicking Human Deglutition
The number of Total Glossectomy cases in the United States is seeing an increasing trend as per the Nationwide Inpatient Sample Database. Patients, who have undergone such aggressive surgical procedures, have extensive limitations performing basic oral functions such as swallowing (deglutition), eating and speaking. Current rehabilitation prostheses do little in restoring the functionality of the original tongue. This is true especially in deglutition, which is necessary to transfer a bolus to the esophagus. Such patients need advanced prosthetic devices and through this research, investigations into potential solutions for prosthetic tongues to aid in deglutition were carried out. The process began with an extensive literature review that provided tongue position, motion, and pressure data during the swallowing stages. Several potential designs were considered such as using linkages and pneumatic networks (PneuNets). Based on a decision matrix, PneuNets were adopted as the foundational basis for generating prosthetic designs. Several prototypes were fabricated using Fused Filament Disposition for mold development and silicone Eco-flex 00-30 for actuator development. Each iteration involved tackling several design and manufacturing challenges especially when scaling these actuators from an initial experiment to an anatomical shape and size of a human tongue. A tongue of dimensions 1.8 inches wide, 2.4 inches long and 0.24 inches thick was developed. The PneuNet actuator was powered by a pneumatic system and kinematic data was collected using a tracking software. The data gathered provided validation comparisons between position trends exhibited in the literature. Theoretical deflection models were generated for analyzing the deflection of the front, middle and back sections of the tongue prototype. Details from literature review, design iterations, simulations, validation processes, research challenges and conclusions will be discussed in depth
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