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This paper investigates the use of optically-diffuse, elastomeric substrates to measure complex deformations in soft devices. The proposed sensing method infers the modes and magnitudes of strains induced in an elastomer body by measuring changes in optical attenuation caused by the shifting, dispersion, or concentration of embedded, diffusive particles. Unlike many soft sensing methods, this does...
This paper demonstrates the use of mechanotactile feedback to provide humans with virtual proprioception of their prosthetic devices. Traditional prostheses provide little or no sensory feedback, requiring the user to visually inspect many tasks performed with device. Virtual proprioception can allow humans to incorporate the kinematic and kinetic states of an external device into their body image,...
The intrinsic mechanical compliance that makes soft robotic systems ideal for safe, adaptive physical interactions in the presence of uncertainty also poses significant challenges in control. The highly-nonlinear deformations that soft robots undergo are difficult to model and predict, and are even harder to measure and modulate when the soft structures are exposed to complex mechanical loads. This...
This paper presents the design and experimental validation of a soft pneumatic artificial muscle with position and force sensing capabilities. Conductive liquid-based soft sensors are embedded in a fiber-reinforced contractile actuator to measure two modes of deformation — axial strain and diametral expansion — which, together, are used to determine the stroke length and contractile force generated...
This paper presents the design and control of a teleoperated robotic system for dexterous micromanipulation tasks at the meso-scale, specifically open microsurgery. Robotic open microsurgery is an unexplored yet potentially a high impact area of surgical robotics. Microsurgical operations, such as microanastomosis of blood vessels and reattachment of nerve fibers, require high levels of manual dexterity...
The ability to measure human hand motions and interaction forces is critical to improving our understanding of manual gesturing and grasp mechanics. This knowledge serves as a basis for developing better tools for human skill training and rehabilitation, exploring more effective methods of designing and controlling robotic hands, and creating more sophisticated human-computer interaction devices which...
The ability to track surgical needle deflection during procedures such as therapeutic drug delivery, biopsies, and medical device implantation allows clinicians to minimize positioning errors and procedural complications due to instrument deviations. We describe the use of a novel strain gauge printing method to sensorize surgical needles for the purpose of sensing needle shape and deflection during...
This paper describes the design, fabrication, and experimental validation of a soft tactile sensor array for submillimeter contact localization and contact force measurement in micromanipulation. The geometry and placement of conductive liquid microchannels embedded within the elastic sensor body are optimized to provide high sensitivity for representative micromanipulation tasks and to overcome functional...
This paper describes the design and experimental validation of a three degree-of-freedom (DOF) robotic wrist which enables high-precision, anthropomorphic motion suitable for both teleoperative and automated robotic micromanipulation tasks. The proposed parallel-platform based robotic wrist improves upon previous wrist designs by combining the mechanical stiffness and precision of conventional parallel-platform...
Micromanipulation methods used for complicated tasks such as microrobot assembly and microvascular surgery often lack the force reflection and contact localization capability necessary to achieve robust grasps of micro-scale objects without applying excessive forces. This absence of haptic feedback is especially prohibitive in cases where visual evidence of force application, such as object surface...
Stroke is the leading cause of long-term disability in the United States, affecting over 795,000 people annually. In order to regain motor function of the upper body, patients are usually treated by regular sessions with a dedicated physical therapist. A cost-effective wearable upper body orthotics system that can be used at home to empower both the patients and physical therapists is described. The...
Underactuated compliant robotic hands exploit passive mechanics and joint coupling to reduce the number of actuators required to achieve grasp robustness in unstructured environments. Reduced actuation requirements generally serve to decrease design cost and improve grasp planning efficiency, but overzealous simplification of an actuation topology, coupled with insufficient tuning of mechanical compliance...
Kinematically redundant robotic manipulators are capable of achieving multiple secondary manipulation goals, including collision avoidance and improved motion economy, by resolving kinematic null spaces. Given specifications for manipulator joint motion resolution and accuracy, null spaces can also be resolved to increase end effector motion precision, which is a critical capability for micromanipulation...
Strokes affect over 750,000 people annually in the United States. This significant and disabling condition can result in paralysis that must be treated by regular sessions with a dedicated physical therapist in order to regain motor function. However, the use of therapists is expensive, in high demand, and requires patient travel to a rehabilitation clinic. We propose an inexpensive and wearable upper...
For decades manufacturing companies have endeavored to develop more versatile, space-efficient, and productive assembly lines. The design of kinematically redundant robotic manipulators and their workcells are a key component in this process and have become an increasingly popular research focus. Redundant manipulators can perform more complex and a greater variety of tasks than their non-redundant...
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