A Hermetic, Transparent Soft Growing Vine Robot System for Pipe Inspection

Rehabilitation of aging pipes requires accurate condition assessment and mapping far into the pipe interiors. Soft growing vine robot systems are particularly promising for navigating confined, sinuous paths such as in pipes, but are currently limited by complex subsystems and a lack of validation in real-world industrial settings. In this paper, we introduce the concept and implementation of a hermetic and transparent vine robot system for visual condition assessment and mapping within non-branching pipes. This design encloses all mechanical and electrical components within the vine robot's soft, airtight, and transparent body, protecting them from environmental interference while enabling visual sensing. Because this approach requires an enclosed mechanism for transporting sensors, we developed, modeled, and tested a passively adapting enclosed tip mount. Finally, we validated the hermetic and transparent vine robot system concept through a real-world condition assessment and mapping task in a wastewater pipe. This work advances the use of soft-growing vine robots in pipe inspection by developing and demonstrating a robust, streamlined, field-validated system suitable for continued development and deployment.

Self-Wearing Adaptive Garments via Soft Robotic Unfurling

Robotic dressing assistance has the potential to improve the quality of life for individuals with limited mobility. Existing solutions predominantly rely on rigid robotic manipulators, which have challenges in handling deformable garments and ensuring safe physical interaction with the human body. Prior robotic dressing methods require excessive operation times, complex control strategies, and constrained user postures, limiting their practicality and adaptability. This paper proposes a novel soft robotic dressing system, the Self-Wearing Adaptive Garment (SWAG), which uses an unfurling and growth mechanism to facilitate autonomous dressing. Unlike traditional approaches,the SWAG conforms to the human body through an unfurling based deployment method, eliminating skin-garment friction and enabling a safer and more efficient dressing process. We present the working principles of the SWAG, introduce its design and fabrication, and demonstrate its performance in dressing assistance. The proposed system demonstrates effective garment application across various garment configurations, presenting a promising alternative to conventional robotic dressing assistance.