-
Wireless flow-powered miniature robot capable of traversing tubular structures Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Chong Hong, Yingdan Wu, Che Wang, Ziyu Ren, Chunxiang Wang, Zemin Liu, Wenqi Hu, Metin Sitti
Wireless millimeter-scale robots capable of navigating through fluid-flowing tubular structures hold substantial potential for inspection, maintenance, or repair use in nuclear, industrial, and medical applications. However, prevalent reliance on external powering constrains these robots’ operational range and applicable environments. Alternatives with onboard powering must trade off size, functionality
-
EELS: Autonomous snake-like robot with task and motion planning capabilities for ice world exploration Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 T. S. Vaquero, G. Daddi, R. Thakker, M. Paton, A. Jasour, M. P. Strub, R. M. Swan, R. Royce, M. Gildner, P. Tosi, M. Veismann, P. Gavrilov, E. Marteau, J. Bowkett, D. Loret de Mola Lemus, Y. Nakka, B. Hockman, A. Orekhov, T. D. Hasseler, C. Leake, B. Nuernberger, P. Proença, W. Reid, W. Talbot, N. Georgiev, T. Pailevanian, A. Archanian, E. Ambrose, J. Jasper, R. Etheredge, C. Roman, D. Levine, K. Otsu
Ice worlds are at the forefront of astrobiological interest because of the evidence of subsurface oceans. Enceladus in particular is unique among the icy moons because there are known vent systems that are likely connected to a subsurface ocean, through which the ocean water is ejected to space. An existing study has shown that sending small robots into the vents and directly sampling the ocean water
-
ANYmal parkour: Learning agile navigation for quadrupedal robots Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 David Hoeller, Nikita Rudin, Dhionis Sako, Marco Hutter
Performing agile navigation with four-legged robots is a challenging task because of the highly dynamic motions, contacts with various parts of the robot, and the limited field of view of the perception sensors. Here, we propose a fully learned approach to training such robots and conquer scenarios that are reminiscent of parkour challenges. The method involves training advanced locomotion skills for
-
Wireless flow-powered miniature robot capable of traversing tubular structures Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Chong Hong, Yingdan Wu, Che Wang, Ziyu Ren, Chunxiang Wang, Zemin Liu, Wenqi Hu, Metin Sitti
Wireless millimeter-scale robots capable of navigating through fluid-flowing tubular structures hold substantial potential for inspection, maintenance, or repair use in nuclear, industrial, and medical applications. However, prevalent reliance on external powering constrains these robots’ operational range and applicable environments. Alternatives with onboard powering must trade off size, functionality
-
An ingestible self-propelling device for intestinal reanimation Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Shriya S. Srinivasan, Julien Dosso, Hen-Wei Huang, George Selsing, Amro Alshareef, Johannes Kuosmanen, Keiko Ishida, Joshua Jenkins, Wiam Abdalla Mohammed Madani, Alison Hayward, Giovanni Traverso
Postoperative ileus (POI) is the leading cause of prolonged hospital stay after abdominal surgery and is characterized by a functional paralysis of the digestive tract, leading to symptoms such as constipation, vomiting, and functional obstruction. Current treatments are mainly supportive and inefficacious and yield acute side effects. Although electrical stimulation studies have demonstrated encouraging
-
An ingestible self-propelling device for intestinal reanimation Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2024-02-28 Shriya S. Srinivasan, Julien Dosso, Hen-Wei Huang, George Selsing, Amro Alshareef, Johannes Kuosmanen, Keiko Ishida, Joshua Jenkins, Wiam Abdalla Mohammed Madani, Alison Hayward, Giovanni Traverso
Postoperative ileus (POI) is the leading cause of prolonged hospital stay after abdominal surgery and is characterized by a functional paralysis of the digestive tract, leading to symptoms such as constipation, vomiting, and functional obstruction. Current treatments are mainly supportive and inefficacious and yield acute side effects. Although electrical stimulation studies have demonstrated encouraging
-
Tracking and navigation of a microswarm under laser speckle contrast imaging for targeted delivery Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2024-02-21 Qinglong Wang, Qianqian Wang, Zhipeng Ning, Kai Fung Chan, Jialin Jiang, Yuqiong Wang, Lin Su, Shuai Jiang, Ben Wang, Bonaventure Yiu Ming Ip, Ho Ko, Thomas Wai Hong Leung, Philip Wai Yan Chiu, Simon Chun Ho Yu, Li Zhang
Micro/nanorobotic swarms consisting of numerous tiny building blocks show great potential in biomedical applications because of their collective active delivery ability, enhanced imaging contrast, and environment-adaptive capability. However, in vivo real-time imaging and tracking of micro/nanorobotic swarms remain a challenge, considering the limited imaging size and spatial-temporal resolution of
-
Magnetic soft microfiberbots for robotic embolization Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2024-02-21 Xurui Liu, Liu Wang, Yuanzhuo Xiang, Fan Liao, Na Li, Jiyu Li, Jiaxin Wang, Qingyang Wu, Cheng Zhou, Youzhou Yang, Yuanshi Kou, Yueying Yang, Hanchuan Tang, Ning Zhou, Chidan Wan, Zhouping Yin, Guang-Zhong Yang, Guangming Tao, Jianfeng Zang
Cerebral aneurysms and brain tumors are leading life-threatening diseases worldwide. By deliberately occluding the target lesion to reduce the blood supply, embolization has been widely used clinically to treat cerebral aneurysms and brain tumors. Conventional embolization is usually performed by threading a catheter through blood vessels to the target lesion, which is often limited by the poor steerability
-
Human-scale navigation of magnetic microrobots in hepatic arteries Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2024-02-14 Ning Li, Phillip Fei, Cyril Tous, Mahdi Rezaei Adariani, Marie-Lou Hautot, Inès Ouedraogo, Amina Hadjadj, Ivan P. Dimov, Quan Zhang, Simon Lessard, Zeynab Nosrati, Courtney N. Ng, Katayoun Saatchi, Urs O. Häfeli, Charles Tremblay, Samuel Kadoury, An Tang, Sylvain Martel, Gilles Soulez
Using external actuation sources to navigate untethered drug-eluting microrobots in the bloodstream offers great promise in improving the selectivity of drug delivery, especially in oncology, but the current field forces are difficult to maintain with enough strength inside the human body (>70-centimeter-diameter range) to achieve this operation. Here, we present an algorithm to predict the optimal
-
Human-scale navigation of magnetic microrobots in hepatic arteries Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2024-02-14 Ning Li, Phillip Fei, Cyril Tous, Mahdi Rezaei Adariani, Marie-Lou Hautot, Inès Ouedraogo, Amina Hadjadj, Ivan P. Dimov, Quan Zhang, Simon Lessard, Zeynab Nosrati, Courtney N. Ng, Katayoun Saatchi, Urs O. Häfeli, Charles Tremblay, Samuel Kadoury, An Tang, Sylvain Martel, Gilles Soulez
Using external actuation sources to navigate untethered drug-eluting microrobots in the bloodstream offers great promise in improving the selectivity of drug delivery, especially in oncology, but the current field forces are difficult to maintain with enough strength inside the human body (>70-centimeter-diameter range) to achieve this operation. Here, we present an algorithm to predict the optimal
-
Dexterous helical magnetic robot for improved endovascular access Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2024-02-14 R. Dreyfus, Q. Boehler, S. Lyttle, P. Gruber, J. Lussi, C. Chautems, S. Gervasoni, J. Berberat, D. Seibold, N. Ochsenbein-Kölble, M. Reinehr, M. Weisskopf, L. Remonda, B. J. Nelson
Treating vascular diseases in the brain requires access to the affected region inside the body. This is usually accomplished through a minimally invasive technique that involves the use of long, thin devices, such as wires and tubes, that are manually maneuvered by a clinician within the bloodstream. By pushing, pulling, and twisting, these devices are navigated through the tortuous pathways of the
-
3D-printed digital pneumatic logic for the control of soft robotic actuators Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2024-01-31 S. Conrad, J. Teichmann, P. Auth, N. Knorr, K. Ulrich, D. Bellin, T. Speck, F. J. Tauber
Soft robots are paving their way to catch up with the application range of metal-based machines and to occupy fields that are challenging for traditional machines. Pneumatic actuators play an important role in this development, allowing the construction of bioinspired motion systems. Pneumatic logic gates provide a powerful alternative for controlling pressure-activated soft robots, which are often
-
iCub3 avatar system: Enabling remote fully immersive embodiment of humanoid robots Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2024-01-24 Stefano Dafarra, Ugo Pattacini, Giulio Romualdi, Lorenzo Rapetti, Riccardo Grieco, Kourosh Darvish, Gianluca Milani, Enrico Valli, Ines Sorrentino, Paolo Maria Viceconte, Alessandro Scalzo, Silvio Traversaro, Carlotta Sartore, Mohamed Elobaid, Nuno Guedelha, Connor Herron, Alexander Leonessa, Francesco Draicchio, Giorgio Metta, Marco Maggiali, Daniele Pucci
We present an avatar system designed to facilitate the embodiment of humanoid robots by human operators, validated through iCub3, a humanoid developed at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia. More precisely, the paper makes two contributions: First, we present the humanoid iCub3 as a robotic avatar that integrates the latest significant improvements after about 15 years of development of the iCub series
-
A self-organizing robotic aggregate using solid and liquid-like collective states Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2024-01-24 Baudouin Saintyves, Matthew Spenko, Heinrich M. Jaeger
Designing robotic systems that can change their physical form factor as well as their compliance to adapt to environmental constraints remains a major conceptual and technical challenge. To address this, we introduce the Granulobot, a modular system that blurs the distinction between soft, modular, and swarm robotics. The system consists of gear-like units that each contain a single actuator such that
-
DTC: Deep Tracking Control Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2024-01-17 Fabian Jenelten, Junzhe He, Farbod Farshidian, Marco Hutter
Legged locomotion is a complex control problem that requires both accuracy and robustness to cope with real-world challenges. Legged systems have traditionally been controlled using trajectory optimization with inverse dynamics. Such hierarchical model-based methods are appealing because of intuitive cost function tuning, accurate planning, generalization, and, most importantly, the insightful understanding
-
Ultralight, strong, and self-reprogrammable mechanical metamaterials Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2024-01-17 Christine E. Gregg, Damiana Catanoso, Olivia Irene B. Formoso, Irina Kostitsyna, Megan E. Ochalek, Taiwo J. Olatunde, In Won Park, Frank M. Sebastianelli, Elizabeth M. Taylor, Greenfield T. Trinh, Kenneth C. Cheung
Versatile programmable materials have long been envisioned that can reconfigure themselves to adapt to changing use cases in adaptive infrastructure, space exploration, disaster response, and more. We introduce a robotic structural system as an implementation of programmable matter, with mechanical performance and scale on par with conventional high-performance materials and truss systems. Fiber-reinforced
-
A growing soft robot with climbing plant–inspired adaptive behaviors for navigation in unstructured environments Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2024-01-17 Emanuela Del Dottore, Alessio Mondini, Nick Rowe, Barbara Mazzolai
Self-growing robots are an emerging solution in soft robotics for navigating, exploring, and colonizing unstructured environments. However, their ability to grow and move in heterogeneous three-dimensional (3D) spaces, comparable with real-world conditions, is still developing. We present an autonomous growing robot that draws inspiration from the behavioral adaptive strategies of climbing plants to
-
Mechanical intelligence simplifies control in terrestrial limbless locomotion Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-12-20 Tianyu Wang, Christopher Pierce, Velin Kojouharov, Baxi Chong, Kelimar Diaz, Hang Lu, Daniel I. Goldman
Limbless locomotors, from microscopic worms to macroscopic snakes, traverse complex, heterogeneous natural environments typically using undulatory body wave propagation. Theoretical and robophysical models typically emphasize body kinematics and active neural/electronic control. However, we contend that because such approaches often neglect the role of passive, mechanically controlled processes (those
-
Human motor augmentation with an extra robotic arm without functional interference Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-12-13 Giulia Dominijanni, Daniel Leal Pinheiro, Leonardo Pollina, Bastien Orset, Martina Gini, Eugenio Anselmino, Camilla Pierella, Jérémy Olivier, Solaiman Shokur, Silvestro Micera
Extra robotic arms (XRAs) are gaining interest in neuroscience and robotics, offering potential tools for daily activities. However, this compelling opportunity poses new challenges for sensorimotor control strategies and human-machine interfaces (HMIs). A key unsolved challenge is allowing users to proficiently control XRAs without hindering their existing functions. To address this, we propose a
-
Machine learning–driven self-discovery of the robot body morphology Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-12-13 Fernando Díaz Ledezma, Sami Haddadin
The morphology of a robot is typically assumed to be known, and data from external measuring devices are used mainly for its kinematic calibration. In contrast, we take an agent-centric perspective and ponder the vaguely explored question of whether a robot could learn elements of its morphology by itself, relying on minimal prior knowledge and depending only on unorganized proprioceptive signals.
-
Lateral flexion of a compliant spine improves motor performance in a bioinspired mouse robot Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-12-06 Zhenshan Bing, Alex Rohregger, Florian Walter, Yuhong Huang, Peer Lucas, Fabrice O. Morin, Kai Huang, Alois Knoll
A flexible spine is critical to the motion capability of most animals and plays a pivotal role in their agility. Although state-of-the-art legged robots have already achieved very dynamic and agile movement solely relying on their legs, they still exhibit the type of stiff movement that compromises movement efficiency. The integration of a flexible spine thus appears to be a promising approach to improve
-
Animal robots in the African wilderness: Lessons learned and outlook for field robotics Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-12-06 Kamilo Melo, Tomislav Horvat, Auke J. Ijspeert
In early 2016, we had the opportunity to test a pair of sprawling posture robots, one designed to mimic a crocodile and another designed to mimic a monitor lizard, along the banks of the Nile River in Uganda, Africa. These robots were developed uniquely for a documentary by the BBC called Spy in the Wild and fell at the intersection of our interests in developing robots to study animals and robots
-
Toward three-dimensional DNA industrial nanorobots Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-12-06 Feng Zhou, Heng Ni, Guolong Zhu, Lev Bershadsky, Ruojie Sha, Nadrian C. Seeman, Paul M. Chaikin
Nanoscale industrial robots have potential as manufacturing platforms and are capable of automatically performing repetitive tasks to handle and produce nanomaterials with consistent precision and accuracy. We demonstrate a DNA industrial nanorobot that fabricates a three-dimensional (3D), optically active chiral structure from optically inactive parts. By making use of externally controlled temperature
-
Is "suicide by droid" satire or a real possibility? Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-11-29 Robin R Murphy
Zed: A Novel humorously illustrates the need for, and challenges facing, the European Union Artificial Intelligence Act.
-
"Robots for good": Ten defining questions. Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-11-29 Selma Šabanović,Vicky Charisi,Tony Belpaeme,Cindy L Bethel,Maja Matarić,Robin Murphy,Shelly Levy-Tzedek
Ten questions to guide reflection and assessment of the "good" in robotics projects are suggested.
-
Octopus-inspired sensorized soft arm for environmental interaction Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-11-29 Zhexin Xie, Feiyang Yuan, Jiaqi Liu, Lufeng Tian, Bohan Chen, Zhongqiang Fu, Sizhe Mao, Tongtong Jin, Yun Wang, Xia He, Gang Wang, Yanru Mo, Xilun Ding, Yihui Zhang, Cecilia Laschi, Li Wen
Octopuses can whip their soft arms with a characteristic “bend propagation” motion to capture prey with sensitive suckers. This relatively simple strategy provides models for robotic grasping, controllable with a small number of inputs, and a highly deformable arm with sensing capabilities. Here, we implemented an electronics-integrated soft octopus arm (E-SOAM) capable of reaching, sensing, grasping
-
Autonomous boat navigation in the real world. Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-11-22 Amos Matsiko
A passenger boat was capable of autonomous navigation on a narrow canal waterway and an open sea nearshore environment.
-
The AI Act Grand Challenge shows how autonomous robots will be regulated. Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-11-22 Emmie Hine,Yasaman Yousefi,Parisa Osivand,Dirk Brand,Kholofelo Kugler,Pier Giorgio Chiara
One of the winning teams of the EU AI Act Grand Challenge analyzes how the AI Act will regulate robots.
-
Visual dexterity: In-hand reorientation of novel and complex object shapes Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-11-22 Tao Chen, Megha Tippur, Siyang Wu, Vikash Kumar, Edward Adelson, Pulkit Agrawal
In-hand object reorientation is necessary for performing many dexterous manipulation tasks, such as tool use in less structured environments, which remain beyond the reach of current robots. Prior works built reorientation systems assuming one or many of the following conditions: reorienting only specific objects with simple shapes, limited range of reorientation, slow or quasi-static manipulation
-
A framework for robotic excavation and dry stone construction using on-site materials Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-11-22 Ryan Luke Johns, Martin Wermelinger, Ruben Mascaro, Dominic Jud, Ilmar Hurkxkens, Lauren Vasey, Margarita Chli, Fabio Gramazio, Matthias Kohler, Marco Hutter
Automated building processes that enable efficient in situ resource utilization can facilitate construction in remote locations while simultaneously offering a carbon-reducing alternative to commonplace building practices. Toward these ends, we present a robotic construction pipeline that is capable of planning and building freeform stone walls and landscapes from highly heterogeneous local materials
-
Teaching a single-arm robot to fold towels. Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-11-15 Melisa Yashinski
Reinforcement learning was used to teach a one-armed robot to flatten and fold a towel.
-
A metric for characterizing the arm nonuse workspace in poststroke individuals using a robot arm Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-11-15 Nathaniel Dennler, Amelia Cain, Erica De Guzmann, Claudia Chiu, Carolee J. Winstein, Stefanos Nikolaidis, Maja J. Matarić
An overreliance on the less-affected limb for functional tasks at the expense of the paretic limb and in spite of recovered capacity is an often-observed phenomenon in survivors of hemispheric stroke. The difference between capacity for use and actual spontaneous use is referred to as arm nonuse. Obtaining an ecologically valid evaluation of arm nonuse is challenging because it requires the observation
-
Motion planning around obstacles with convex optimization Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-11-15 Tobia Marcucci, Mark Petersen, David von Wrangel, Russ Tedrake
From quadrotors delivering packages in urban areas to robot arms moving in confined warehouses, motion planning around obstacles is a core challenge in modern robotics. Planners based on optimization can design trajectories in high-dimensional spaces while satisfying the robot dynamics. However, in the presence of obstacles, these optimization problems become nonconvex and very hard to solve, even
-
Touching reality: Bridging the user-researcher divide in upper-limb prosthetics. Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-10-25 J D Brown,E Battaglia,S Engdahl,G Levay,A C Parks,E Skinner,M K O'Malley
Realistically improving upper-limb prostheses is only possible if we listen to users' actual technological needs.
-
Assistive robotics should seamlessly integrate humans and robots. Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-10-25 Douglas Weber,Amos Matsiko
Better integration of assistive robots with humans and adoption of a user-centric approach in their development will improve performance.
-
The role of collaborative robotics in assistive and rehabilitation applications. Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-10-25 Monroe Kennedy
Collaborative robotics principles and advancements may transform the field of assistive and rehabilitation robotics.
-
A powered prosthesis supports weight-bearing stand-to-sit transitions. Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-10-25 Amos Matsiko
Above-knee amputees were capable of weight-bearing symmetry during stand-to-sit transitions when using a powered prosthesis.
-
Effect of hip abduction assistance on metabolic cost and balance during human walking Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-10-25 Juneil Park, Kimoon Nam, Juseok Yun, JunYoung Moon, JaeWook Ryu, Sungjin Park, Seungtae Yang, Alireza Nasirzadeh, Woochul Nam, Sruthi Ramadurai, Myunghee Kim, Giuk Lee
The use of wearable robots to provide walking assistance has rapidly grown over the past decade, with notable advances made in robot design and control methods toward reducing physical effort while performing an activity. The reduction in walking effort has mainly been achieved by assisting forward progression in the sagittal plane. Human gait, however, is a complex movement that combines motions in
-
Brief exosuit use improves post-stroke gait. Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-10-18 Melisa Yashinski
After only 2 weeks of training with an exoskeleton suit, post-stroke individuals improved their knee flexion and gait.
-
Assistive robots would regret a robot uprising. Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-10-18 Robin R Murphy
Sea of Rust projects a complex emotional relationship between assistive robots and humans.
-
Neural prosthesis control restores near-normative neuromechanics in standing postural control Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-10-18 Aaron Fleming, Wentao Liu, He (Helen) Huang
Current lower-limb prostheses do not provide active assistance in postural control tasks to maintain the user’s balance, particularly in situations of perturbation. In this study, we aimed to address this missing function by enabling neural control of robotic lower-limb prostheses. Specifically, electromyographic (EMG) signals (amplified neural control signals) recorded from antagonistic residual ankle
-
User preference optimization for control of ankle exoskeletons using sample efficient active learning Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-10-18 Ung Hee Lee, Varun S. Shetty, Patrick W. Franks, Jie Tan, Georgios Evangelopoulos, Sehoon Ha, Elliott J. Rouse
One challenge to achieving widespread success of augmentative exoskeletons is accurately adjusting the controller to provide cooperative assistance with their wearer. Often, the controller parameters are “tuned” to optimize a physiological or biomechanical objective. However, these approaches are resource intensive, while typically only enabling optimization of a single objective. In reality, the exoskeleton
-
Toward self-contained bidirectional bionic limbs with high information throughput. Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-10-11 Strahinja Dosen
Surgical neural engineering and human-machine interfacing enable bionic limbs with dexterous control and sensory feedback.
-
A highly integrated bionic hand with neural control and feedback for use in daily life Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-10-11 Max Ortiz-Catalan, Jan Zbinden, Jason Millenaar, Daniele D’Accolti, Marco Controzzi, Francesco Clemente, Leonardo Cappello, Eric J. Earley, Enzo Mastinu, Justyna Kolankowska, Maria Munoz-Novoa, Stewe Jönsson, Christian Cipriani, Paolo Sassu, Rickard Brånemark
Restoration of sensorimotor function after amputation has remained challenging because of the lack of human-machine interfaces that provide reliable control, feedback, and attachment. Here, we present the clinical implementation of a transradial neuromusculoskeletal prosthesis—a bionic hand connected directly to the user’s nervous and skeletal systems. In one person with unilateral below-elbow amputation
-
Plantar somatosensory restoration enhances gait, speed perception, and motor adaptation Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-10-11 Daekyoo Kim, Ronald Triolo, Hamid Charkhkar
Lower limb loss is a major insult to the body’s nervous and musculoskeletal systems. Despite technological advances in prosthesis design, artificial limbs are not yet integrated into the body’s physiological systems. Therefore, lower limb amputees (LLAs) experience lower balance confidence, higher fear of falls, and impaired gait compared with their able-bodied peers (ABs). Previous studies have demonstrated
-
Reducing sprint time with exosuit assistance in the real world. Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-09-27 Junyoung Moon,Kimoon Nam,Jaewook Ryu,Yoosun Kim,Juseok Yun,Seungtae Yang,Jaeha Yang,Giuk Lee
Hip extension assistance with the aid of exosuits can reduce sprinting time.
-
Neuromorphic sequence learning with an event camera on routes through vegetation Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-09-27 Le Zhu, Michael Mangan, Barbara Webb
For many robotics applications, it is desirable to have relatively low-power and efficient onboard solutions. We took inspiration from insects, such as ants, that are capable of learning and following routes in complex natural environments using relatively constrained sensory and neural systems. Such capabilities are particularly relevant to applications such as agricultural robotics, where visual
-
Surgical robots in movies may not be science fiction. Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-09-20 Robin R Murphy
RoboDoc, a 2009 comedy, offers a surprisingly accurate assessment of robot surgery.
-
Autonomous medical needle steering in vivo Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-09-20 Alan Kuntz, Maxwell Emerson, Tayfun Efe Ertop, Inbar Fried, Mengyu Fu, Janine Hoelscher, Margaret Rox, Jason Akulian, Erin A. Gillaspie, Yueh Z. Lee, Fabien Maldonado, Robert J. Webster, Ron Alterovitz
The use of needles to access sites within organs is fundamental to many interventional medical procedures both for diagnosis and treatment. Safely and accurately navigating a needle through living tissue to a target is currently often challenging or infeasible because of the presence of anatomical obstacles, high levels of uncertainty, and natural tissue motion. Medical robots capable of automating
-
Using robotics to move a neurosurgeon’s hands to the tip of their endoscope Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-09-20 Karl Price, Joseph Peine, Margherita Mencattelli, Yash Chitalia, David Pu, Thomas Looi, Scellig Stone, James Drake, Pierre E. Dupont
A major advantage of surgical robots is that they can reduce the invasiveness of a procedure by enabling the clinician to manipulate tools as they would in open surgery but through small incisions in the body. Neurosurgery has yet to benefit from this advantage. Although clinical robots are available for the least invasive neurosurgical procedures, such as guiding electrode insertion, the most invasive
-
Reaching the limit in autonomous racing: Optimal control versus reinforcement learning Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-09-13 Yunlong Song, Angel Romero, Matthias Müller, Vladlen Koltun, Davide Scaramuzza
A central question in robotics is how to design a control system for an agile mobile robot. This paper studies this question systematically, focusing on a challenging setting: autonomous drone racing. We show that a neural network controller trained with reinforcement learning (RL) outperformed optimal control (OC) methods in this setting. We then investigated which fundamental factors have contributed
-
Solar-powered shape-changing origami microfliers Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-09-13 Kyle Johnson, Vicente Arroyos, Amélie Ferran, Raul Villanueva, Dennis Yin, Tilboon Elberier, Alberto Aliseda, Sawyer Fuller, Vikram Iyer, Shyamnath Gollakota
Using wind to disperse microfliers that fall like seeds and leaves can help automate large-scale sensor deployments. Here, we present battery-free microfliers that can change shape in mid-air to vary their dispersal distance. We designed origami microfliers using bistable leaf-out structures and uncovered an important property: A simple change in the shape of these origami structures causes two dramatically
-
Robotic self-modulation enhances implantable long-acting drug delivery devices. Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-08-30 Tejal Desai,Alessandro Grattoni
Integrating fibrotic capsule sensing with soft robotics may boost long-term performance of implantable drug delivery devices.
-
Soft robot–mediated autonomous adaptation to fibrotic capsule formation for improved drug delivery Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-08-30 Rachel Beatty, Keegan L. Mendez, Lucien H. J. Schreiber, Ruth Tarpey, William Whyte, Yiling Fan, Scott T. Robinson, Joanne O’Dwyer, Andrew J. Simpkin, Joseph Tannian, Peter Dockery, Eimear B. Dolan, Ellen T. Roche, Garry P. Duffy
The foreign body response impedes the function and longevity of implantable drug delivery devices. As a dense fibrotic capsule forms, integration of the device with the host tissue becomes compromised, ultimately resulting in device seclusion and treatment failure. We present FibroSensing Dynamic Soft Reservoir (FSDSR), an implantable drug delivery device capable of monitoring fibrotic capsule formation
-
Control of soft robots with inertial dynamics Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-08-30 David A. Haggerty, Michael J. Banks, Ervin Kamenar, Alan B. Cao, Patrick C. Curtis, Igor Mezić, Elliot W. Hawkes
Soft robots promise improved safety and capability over rigid robots when deployed near humans or in complex, delicate, and dynamic environments. However, infinite degrees of freedom and the potential for highly nonlinear dynamics severely complicate their modeling and control. Analytical and machine learning methodologies have been applied to model soft robots but with constraints: quasi-static motions
-
Increasing the payload capacity of soft robot arms by localized stiffening Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-08-30 Daniel Bruder, Moritz A. Graule, Clark B. Teeple, Robert J. Wood
Soft robot arms offer safety and adaptability due to their passive compliance, but this compliance typically limits their payload capacity and prevents them from performing many tasks. This paper presents a model-based design approach to effectively increase the payload capacity of soft robot arms. The proposed approach uses localized body stiffening to decrease the compliance at the end effector without
-
Designing a robot to recover a sunken submarine is hard Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-08-23 Robin R. Murphy
Three Miles Down is a fictionalized version of the expedition to recover a Soviet submarine, 50 years before OceanGate Titan.
-
Versatile multicontact planning and control for legged loco-manipulation Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-08-16 Jean-Pierre Sleiman, Farbod Farshidian, Marco Hutter
Loco-manipulation planning skills are pivotal for expanding the utility of robots in everyday environments. These skills can be assessed on the basis of a system’s ability to coordinate complex holistic movements and multiple contact interactions when solving different tasks. However, existing approaches have been merely able to shape such behaviors with hand-crafted state machines, densely engineered
-
Ajna: Generalized deep uncertainty for minimal perception on parsimonious robots Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-08-16 Nitin J. Sanket, Chahat Deep Singh, Cornelia Fermüller, Yiannis Aloimonos
Robots are active agents that operate in dynamic scenarios with noisy sensors. Predictions based on these noisy sensor measurements often lead to errors and can be unreliable. To this end, roboticists have used fusion methods using multiple observations. Lately, neural networks have dominated the accuracy charts for perception-driven predictions for robotic decision-making and often lack uncertainty
-
Harnessing AI and robotics in humanitarian assistance and disaster response. Sci. Robot. (IF 25.0) Pub Date : 2023-07-26 Thomas Manzini,Robin R Murphy,Eric Heim,Caleb Robinson,Guido Zarrella,Ritwik Gupta
AI and robotics can facilitate humanitarian assistance and disaster response, but partnerships with practitioners are crucial.