Hybrid Soft Electrostatic Metamaterial Gripper for Multi-surface, Multi-object Adaptation

One of the trendsetting themes in soft robotics has been the goal of developing the ultimate universal soft robotic gripper. One that is capable of manipulating items of various shapes, sizes, thicknesses, textures, and weights. All the while still being lightweight and scalable in order to adapt to use cases. In this work, we report a soft gripper that enables delicate and precise grasps of fragile, deformable, and flexible objects but also excels in lifting heavy objects of up to 1617x its own body weight. The principle behind the soft gripper is based on extending the capabilities of electroadhesion soft grippers through the enhancement principles found in metamaterial adhesion cut and patterning. This design amplifies the adhesion and grasping payload in one direction while reducing the adhesion capabilities in the other direction. This counteracts the residual forces during peeling (a common problem with electroadhesive grippers), thus increasing its speed of release. In essence, we are able to tune the maximum strength and peeling speed, beyond the capabilities of previous electroadhesive grippers. We study the capabilities of the system through a wide range of experiments with single and multiple-fingered peel tests. We also demonstrate its modular and adaptive capabilities in the real-world with a two-finger gripper, by performing grasping tests of up to $5$ different multi-surfaced objects.

Aerial Tensile Perching and Disentangling Mechanism for Long-Term Environmental Monitoring

Aerial robots show significant potential for forest canopy research and environmental monitoring by providing data collection capabilities at high spatial and temporal resolutions. However, limited flight endurance hinders their application. Inspired by natural perching behaviours, we propose a multi-modal aerial robot system that integrates tensile perching for energy conservation and a suspended actuated pod for data collection. The system consists of a quadrotor drone, a slewing ring mechanism allowing 360{\deg} tether rotation, and a streamlined pod with two ducted propellers connected via a tether. Winding and unwinding the tether allows the pod to move within the canopy, and activating the propellers allows the tether to be wrapped around branches for perching or disentangling. We experimentally determined the minimum counterweights required for stable perching under various conditions. Building on this, we devised and evaluated multiple perching and disentangling strategies. Comparisons of perching and disentangling manoeuvres demonstrate energy savings that could be further maximized with the use of the pod or tether winding. These approaches can reduce energy consumption to only 22\% and 1.5\%, respectively, compared to a drone disentangling manoeuvre. We also calculated the minimum idle time required by the proposed system after the system perching and motor shut down to save energy on a mission, which is 48.9\% of the operating time. Overall, the integrated system expands the operational capabilities and enhances the energy efficiency of aerial robots for long-term monitoring tasks.

Gotta catch 'em all, safely! Aerial-deployed soft underwater gripper

Underwater soft grippers exhibit potential for applications such as monitoring, research, and object retrieval. However, existing underwater gripping techniques frequently cause disturbances to ecosystems. In response to this challenge, we present a novel underwater gripping framework comprising a lightweight gripper affixed to a custom submarine pod deployable via drone. This approach minimizes water disturbance and enables efficient navigation to target areas, enhancing overall mission effectiveness. The pod allows for underwater motion and is characterized by four degrees of freedom. It is provided with a custom buoyancy system, two water pumps for differential thrust and two for pitching. The system allows for buoyancy adjustments up to a depth of 6 meters, as well as motion in the plane. The 3-fingered gripper is manufactured out of silicone and was successfully tested on objects with different shapes and sizes, demonstrating a maximum pulling force of up to 8 N when underwater. The reliability of the submarine pod was tested in a water tank by tracking its attitude and energy consumption during grasping maneuvers. The system also accomplished a successful mission in a lake, where it was deployed on a hexacopter. Overall, the integration of this system expands the operational capabilities of underwater grasping, makes grasping missions more efficient and easy to automate, as well as causing less disturbance to the water ecosystem.

Robotic Electrospinning Actuated by Non-Circular Joint Continuum Manipulator for Endoluminal Therapy

Electrospinning has exhibited excellent benefits to treat the trauma for tissue engineering due to its produced micro/nano fibrous structure. It can effectively adhere to the tissue surface for long-term continuous therapy. This paper develops a robotic electrospinning platform for endoluminal therapy. The platform consists of a continuum manipulator, the electrospinning device, and the actuation unit. The continuum manipulator has two bending sections to facilitate the steering of the tip needle for a controllable spinning direction. Non-circular joint profile is carefully designed to enable a constant length of the centreline of a continuum manipulator for stable fluid transmission inside it. Experiments are performed on a bronchus phantom, and the steering ability and bending limitation in each direction are also investigated. The endoluminal electrospinning is also fulfilled by a trajectory following and points targeting experiments. The effective adhesive area of the produced fibre is also illustrated. The proposed robotic electrospinning shows its feasibility to precisely spread more therapeutic drug to construct fibrous structure for potential endoluminal treatment.