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When performing actions with robots, attribution of intentionality affects the sense of joint agency Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-06-26 Uma Prashant Navare, Francesca Ciardo, Kyveli Kompatsiari, Davide De Tommaso, Agnieszka Wykowska
Sense of joint agency (SoJA) is the sense of control experienced by humans when acting with others to bring about changes in the shared environment. SoJA is proposed to arise from the sensorimotor predictive processes underlying action control and monitoring. Because SoJA is a ubiquitous phenomenon occurring when we perform actions with other humans, it is of great interest and importance to understand
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SimPLE, a visuotactile method learned in simulation to precisely pick, localize, regrasp, and place objects Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-06-26 Maria Bauza, Antonia Bronars, Yifan Hou, Ian Taylor, Nikhil Chavan-Dafle, Alberto Rodriguez
Existing robotic systems have a tension between generality and precision. Deployed solutions for robotic manipulation tend to fall into the paradigm of one robot solving a single task, lacking “precise generalization,” or the ability to solve many tasks without compromising on precision. This paper explores solutions for precise and general pick and place. In precise pick and place, or kitting, the
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Biohybrid microrobots regulate colonic cytokines and the epithelium barrier in inflammatory bowel disease Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-06-26 Zhengxing Li, Yaou Duan, Fangyu Zhang, Hao Luan, Wei-Ting Shen, Yiyan Yu, Nianfei Xian, Zhongyuan Guo, Edward Zhang, Lu Yin, Ronnie H. Fang, Weiwei Gao, Liangfang Zhang, Joseph Wang
Cytokines have been identified as key contributors to the development of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), yet conventional treatments often prove inadequate and carry substantial side effects. Here, we present an innovative biohybrid robotic system, termed “algae-MΦNP-robot,” for addressing IBD by actively neutralizing colonic cytokine levels. Our approach combines moving green microalgae with macrophage
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Optimality principles in spacecraft neural guidance and control Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-06-19 Dario Izzo, Emmanuel Blazquez, Robin Ferede, Sebastien Origer, Christophe De Wagter, Guido C. H. E. de Croon
This Review discusses the main results obtained in training end-to-end neural architectures for guidance and control of interplanetary transfers, planetary landings, and close-proximity operations, highlighting the successful learning of optimality principles by the underlying neural models. Spacecraft and drones aimed at exploring our solar system are designed to operate in conditions where the smart
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Exploring beyond Earth using space robotics Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-06-19 Steve A. Chien, Gianfranco Visentin, Connor Basich
Robotic spacecraft enable exploration of our Solar System beyond our human presence. Although spacecraft have explored every planet in the Solar System, the frontiers of space robotics are at the cutting edge of landers, rovers, and now atmospheric explorers, where robotic spacecraft must interact intimately with their environment to explore beyond the reach of flyby and orbital remote sensing. Here
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Soft robotic platform for progressive and reversible aortic constriction in a small-animal model Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-06-12 Luca Rosalia, Sophie X. Wang, Caglar Ozturk, Wei Huang, Jean Bonnemain, Rachel Beatty, Garry P. Duffy, Christopher T. Nguyen, Ellen T. Roche
Our understanding of cardiac remodeling processes due to left ventricular pressure overload derives largely from animal models of aortic banding. However, these studies fail to enable control over both disease progression and reversal, hindering their clinical relevance. Here, we describe a method for progressive and reversible aortic banding based on an implantable expandable actuator that can be
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A portable inflatable soft wearable robot to assist the shoulder during industrial work Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-06-12 Yu Meng Zhou, Cameron J. Hohimer, Harrison T. Young, Connor M. McCann, David Pont-Esteban, Umut S. Civici, Yichu Jin, Patrick Murphy, Diana Wagner, Tazzy Cole, Nathan Phipps, Haedo Cho, Franchesco Bertacchi, Isabella Pignataro, Tommaso Proietti, Conor J. Walsh
Repetitive overhead tasks during factory work can cause shoulder injuries resulting in impaired health and productivity loss. Soft wearable upper extremity robots have the potential to be effective injury prevention tools with minimal restrictions using soft materials and active controls. We present the design and evaluation of a portable inflatable shoulder wearable robot for assisting industrial
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Conductive block copolymer elastomers and psychophysical thresholding for accurate haptic effects Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-06-12 Rachel Blau, Abdulhameed Abdal, Nicholas Root, Alexander X. Chen, Tarek Rafeedi, Robert Ramji, Yi Qie, Taewoo Kim, Anthony Navarro, Jason Chin, Laura L. Becerra, Samuel J. Edmunds, Samantha M. Russman, Shadi A. Dayeh, David P. Fenning, Romke Rouw, Darren J. Lipomi
Electrotactile stimulus is a form of sensory substitution in which an electrical signal is perceived as a mechanical sensation. The electrotactile effect could, in principle, recapitulate a range of tactile experience by selective activation of nerve endings. However, the method has been plagued by inconsistency, galvanic reactions, pain and desensitization, and unwanted stimulation of nontactile nerves
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Evaluating initial usability of a hand augmentation device across a large and diverse sample Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-05-29 Dani Clode, Lucy Dowdall, Edmund da Silva, Klara Selén, Dorothy Cowie, Giulia Dominijanni, Tamar R. Makin
The advancement of motor augmentation and the broader domain of human-machine interaction rely on a seamless integration with users’ physical and cognitive capabilities. These considerations may markedly fluctuate among individuals on the basis of their age, form, and abilities. There is a need to develop a standard for considering these diversity needs and preferences to guide technological development
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Excitation of natural spinal reflex loops in the sensory-motor control of hand prostheses Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-05-29 Patrick G. Sagastegui Alva, Anna Boesendorfer, Oskar C. Aszmann, Jaime Ibáñez, Dario Farina
Sensory feedback for prosthesis control is typically based on encoding sensory information in specific types of sensory stimuli that the users interpret to adjust the control of the prosthesis. However, in physiological conditions, the afferent feedback received from peripheral nerves is not only processed consciously but also modulates spinal reflex loops that contribute to the neural information
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Avian eye–inspired perovskite artificial vision system for foveated and multispectral imaging Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-05-29 Jinhong Park, Min Seok Kim, Joonsoo Kim, Sehui Chang, Mincheol Lee, Gil Ju Lee, Young Min Song, Dae-Hyeong Kim
Avian eyes have deep central foveae as a result of extensive evolution. Deep foveae efficiently refract incident light, creating a magnified image of the target object and making it easier to track object motion. These features are essential for detecting and tracking remote objects in dynamic environments. Furthermore, avian eyes respond to a wide spectrum of light, including visible and ultraviolet
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Microsaccade-inspired event camera for robotics Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-05-29 Botao He, Ze Wang, Yuan Zhou, Jingxi Chen, Chahat Deep Singh, Haojia Li, Yuman Gao, Shaojie Shen, Kaiwei Wang, Yanjun Cao, Chao Xu, Yiannis Aloimonos, Fei Gao, Cornelia Fermüller
Neuromorphic vision sensors or event cameras have made the visual perception of extremely low reaction time possible, opening new avenues for high-dynamic robotics applications. These event cameras’ output is dependent on both motion and texture. However, the event camera fails to capture object edges that are parallel to the camera motion. This is a problem intrinsic to the sensor and therefore challenging
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Closed-loop optogenetic neuromodulation enables high-fidelity fatigue-resistant muscle control Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-05-22 Guillermo Herrera-Arcos, Hyungeun Song, Seong Ho Yeon, Omkar Ghenand, Samantha Gutierrez-Arango, Sapna Sinha, Hugh Herr
Closed-loop neuroprostheses show promise in restoring motion in individuals with neurological conditions. However, conventional activation strategies based on functional electrical stimulation (FES) fail to accurately modulate muscle force and exhibit rapid fatigue because of their unphysiological recruitment mechanism. Here, we present a closed-loop control framework that leverages physiological force
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An ultrawide field-of-view pinhole compound eye using hemispherical nanowire array for robot vision Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-05-15 Yu Zhou, Zhibo Sun, Yucheng Ding, Zhengnan Yuan, Xiao Qiu, Yang Bryan Cao, Zhu’an Wan, Zhenghao Long, Swapnadeep Poddar, Shivam Kumar, Wenhao Ye, Chak Lam Jonathan Chan, Daquan Zhang, Beitao Ren, Qianpeng Zhang, Hoi-Sing Kwok, Mitch Guijun Li, Zhiyong Fan
Garnering inspiration from biological compound eyes, artificial vision systems boasting a vivid range of diverse visual functional traits have come to the fore recently. However, most of these artificial systems rely on transformable electronics, which suffer from the complexity and constrained geometry of global deformation, as well as potential mismatches between optical and detector units. Here
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What to give your robot mother on Mother’s Day Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-05-15 Robin R. Murphy
Jung_E , the 2023 science-fiction movie from South Korea, suggests that a novel leg-wheel hybrid for robot locomotion might be appreciated.
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Stereoscopic artificial compound eyes for spatiotemporal perception in three-dimensional space Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-05-15 Byungjoon Bae, Doeon Lee, Minseong Park, Yujia Mu, Yongmin Baek, Inbo Sim, Cong Shen, Kyusang Lee
Arthropods’ eyes are effective biological vision systems for object tracking and wide field of view because of their structural uniqueness; however, unlike mammalian eyes, they can hardly acquire the depth information of a static object because of their monocular cues. Therefore, most arthropods rely on motion parallax to track the object in three-dimensional (3D) space. Uniquely, the praying mantis
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Fully neuromorphic vision and control for autonomous drone flight Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-05-15 F. Paredes-Vallés, J. J. Hagenaars, J. Dupeyroux, S. Stroobants, Y. Xu, G. C. H. E. de Croon
Biological sensing and processing is asynchronous and sparse, leading to low-latency and energy-efficient perception and action. In robotics, neuromorphic hardware for event-based vision and spiking neural networks promises to exhibit similar characteristics. However, robotic implementations have been limited to basic tasks with low-dimensional sensory inputs and motor actions because of the restricted
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Why animals can outrun robots Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-04-24 Samuel A. Burden, Thomas Libby, Kaushik Jayaram, Simon Sponberg, J. Maxwell Donelan
Animals are much better at running than robots. The difference in performance arises in the important dimensions of agility, range, and robustness. To understand the underlying causes for this performance gap, we compare natural and artificial technologies in the five subsystems critical for running: power, frame, actuation, sensing, and control. With few exceptions, engineering technologies meet or
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Learning robust autonomous navigation and locomotion for wheeled-legged robots Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-04-24 Joonho Lee, Marko Bjelonic, Alexander Reske, Lorenz Wellhausen, Takahiro Miki, Marco Hutter
Autonomous wheeled-legged robots have the potential to transform logistics systems, improving operational efficiency and adaptability in urban environments. Navigating urban environments, however, poses unique challenges for robots, necessitating innovative solutions for locomotion and navigation. These challenges include the need for adaptive locomotion across varied terrains and the ability to navigate
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Real-world humanoid locomotion with reinforcement learning Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-04-17 Ilija Radosavovic, Tete Xiao, Bike Zhang, Trevor Darrell, Jitendra Malik, Koushil Sreenath
Humanoid robots that can autonomously operate in diverse environments have the potential to help address labor shortages in factories, assist elderly at home, and colonize new planets. Although classical controllers for humanoid robots have shown impressive results in a number of settings, they are challenging to generalize and adapt to new environments. Here, we present a fully learning-based approach
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Locomotion as manipulation with ReachBot Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-04-17 Tony G. Chen, Stephanie Newdick, Julia Di, Carlo Bosio, Nitin Ongole, Mathieu Lapôtre, Marco Pavone, Mark R. Cutkosky
Caves and lava tubes on the Moon and Mars are sites of geological and astrobiological interest but consist of terrain that is inaccessible with traditional robot locomotion. To support the exploration of these sites, we present ReachBot, a robot that uses extendable booms as appendages to manipulate itself with respect to irregular rock surfaces. The booms terminate in grippers equipped with microspines
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An agile monopedal hopping quadcopter with synergistic hybrid locomotion Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-04-10 Songnan Bai, Qiqi Pan, Runze Ding, Huaiyuan Jia, Zhengbao Yang, Pakpong Chirarattananon
Nature abounds with examples of superior mobility through the fusion of aerial and ground movement. Drawing inspiration from such multimodal locomotion, we introduce a high-performance hybrid hopping and flying robot. The proposed robot seamlessly integrates a nano quadcopter with a passive telescopic leg, overcoming limitations of previous jumping mechanisms that rely on stance phase leg actuation
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Learning agile soccer skills for a bipedal robot with deep reinforcement learning Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-04-10 Tuomas Haarnoja, Ben Moran, Guy Lever, Sandy H. Huang, Dhruva Tirumala, Jan Humplik, Markus Wulfmeier, Saran Tunyasuvunakool, Noah Y. Siegel, Roland Hafner, Michael Bloesch, Kristian Hartikainen, Arunkumar Byravan, Leonard Hasenclever, Yuval Tassa, Fereshteh Sadeghi, Nathan Batchelor, Federico Casarini, Stefano Saliceti, Charles Game, Neil Sreendra, Kushal Patel, Marlon Gwira, Andrea Huber, Nicole
We investigated whether deep reinforcement learning (deep RL) is able to synthesize sophisticated and safe movement skills for a low-cost, miniature humanoid robot that can be composed into complex behavioral strategies. We used deep RL to train a humanoid robot to play a simplified one-versus-one soccer game. The resulting agent exhibits robust and dynamic movement skills, such as rapid fall recovery
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Human-robot facial coexpression Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-03-27 Yuhang Hu, Boyuan Chen, Jiong Lin, Yunzhe Wang, Yingke Wang, Cameron Mehlman, Hod Lipson
Large language models are enabling rapid progress in robotic verbal communication, but nonverbal communication is not keeping pace. Physical humanoid robots struggle to express and communicate using facial movement, relying primarily on voice. The challenge is twofold: First, the actuation of an expressively versatile robotic face is mechanically challenging. A second challenge is knowing what expression
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Human-robot facial coexpression Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-03-27 Yuhang Hu, Boyuan Chen, Jiong Lin, Yunzhe Wang, Yingke Wang, Cameron Mehlman, Hod Lipson
Large language models are enabling rapid progress in robotic verbal communication, but nonverbal communication is not keeping pace. Physical humanoid robots struggle to express and communicate using facial movement, relying primarily on voice. The challenge is twofold: First, the actuation of an expressively versatile robotic face is mechanically challenging. A second challenge is knowing what expression
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Estimating human joint moments unifies exoskeleton control, reducing user effort Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-03-20 Dean D. Molinaro, Inseung Kang, Aaron J. Young
Robotic lower-limb exoskeletons can augment human mobility, but current systems require extensive, context-specific considerations, limiting their real-world viability. Here, we present a unified exoskeleton control framework that autonomously adapts assistance on the basis of instantaneous user joint moment estimates from a temporal convolutional network (TCN). When deployed on our hip exoskeleton
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Elastic energy-recycling actuators for efficient robots Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-03-20 Erez Krimsky, Steven H. Collins
Electric motors are widely used in robots but waste energy in many applications. We introduce an elastic energy-recycling actuator that maintains the versatility of motors while improving energy efficiency in cyclic tasks. The actuator comprises a motor in parallel with an array of springs that can be individually engaged and disengaged, while retaining stored energy, by pairs of low-power electroadhesive
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Elastic energy-recycling actuators for efficient robots Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-03-20 Erez Krimsky, Steven H. Collins
Electric motors are widely used in robots but waste energy in many applications. We introduce an elastic energy-recycling actuator that maintains the versatility of motors while improving energy efficiency in cyclic tasks. The actuator comprises a motor in parallel with an array of springs that can be individually engaged and disengaged, while retaining stored energy, by pairs of low-power electroadhesive
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Estimating human joint moments unifies exoskeleton control, reducing user effort Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) Pub Date : 2024-03-20 Dean D. Molinaro, Inseung Kang, Aaron J. Young
Robotic lower-limb exoskeletons can augment human mobility, but current systems require extensive, context-specific considerations, limiting their real-world viability. Here, we present a unified exoskeleton control framework that autonomously adapts assistance on the basis of instantaneous user joint moment estimates from a temporal convolutional network (TCN). When deployed on our hip exoskeleton
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Wireless flow-powered miniature robot capable of traversing tubular structures Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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
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EELS: Autonomous snake-like robot with task and motion planning capabilities for ice world exploration Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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
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ANYmal parkour: Learning agile navigation for quadrupedal robots Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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
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EELS: Autonomous snake-like robot with task and motion planning capabilities for ice world exploration Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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
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ANYmal parkour: Learning agile navigation for quadrupedal robots Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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
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Wireless flow-powered miniature robot capable of traversing tubular structures Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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
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An ingestible self-propelling device for intestinal reanimation Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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
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An ingestible self-propelling device for intestinal reanimation Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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
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Tracking and navigation of a microswarm under laser speckle contrast imaging for targeted delivery Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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
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Magnetic soft microfiberbots for robotic embolization Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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
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Human-scale navigation of magnetic microrobots in hepatic arteries Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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
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Human-scale navigation of magnetic microrobots in hepatic arteries Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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
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Dexterous helical magnetic robot for improved endovascular access Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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
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3D-printed digital pneumatic logic for the control of soft robotic actuators Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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
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iCub3 avatar system: Enabling remote fully immersive embodiment of humanoid robots Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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
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A self-organizing robotic aggregate using solid and liquid-like collective states Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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
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DTC: Deep Tracking Control Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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
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Ultralight, strong, and self-reprogrammable mechanical metamaterials Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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
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A growing soft robot with climbing plant–inspired adaptive behaviors for navigation in unstructured environments Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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
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Mechanical intelligence simplifies control in terrestrial limbless locomotion Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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
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Human motor augmentation with an extra robotic arm without functional interference Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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
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Machine learning–driven self-discovery of the robot body morphology Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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.
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Lateral flexion of a compliant spine improves motor performance in a bioinspired mouse robot Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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
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Animal robots in the African wilderness: Lessons learned and outlook for field robotics Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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
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Toward three-dimensional DNA industrial nanorobots Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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
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Is "suicide by droid" satire or a real possibility? Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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.
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"Robots for good": Ten defining questions. Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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.
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Octopus-inspired sensorized soft arm for environmental interaction Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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
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Autonomous boat navigation in the real world. Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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.
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The AI Act Grand Challenge shows how autonomous robots will be regulated. Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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.
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Visual dexterity: In-hand reorientation of novel and complex object shapes Sci. Robot. (IF 26.1) 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