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Shivangi’s paper accepted to ICRA + Workshop on Origami Robotics

Congrats to Shivangi, Mason, and Rongqian on their ICRA paper!

Shivangi Misra, Mason Mitchell, Rongqian Chen, Cynthia Sung: Design and Control of a Tunable-Stiffness Coiled-Spring Actuator. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2023.

Abstract: We propose a novel design for a lightweight and compact tunable stiffness actuator capable of stiffness changes up to 20x. The design is based on the concept of a coiled spring, where changes in the number of layers in the spring change the bulk stiffness in a near-linear fashion. We present an elastica nested rings model for the deformation of the proposed actuator and empirically verify that the designed stiffness-changing spring abides by this model. Using the resulting model, we design a physical prototype of the tunable-stiffness coiled spring actuator and discuss the effect of design choices on the resulting achievable stiffness range and resolution. In the future, this actuator design could be useful in a wide variety of soft robotics applications, where fast, controllable, and local stiffness change is required over a large range of stiffnesses.

ICRA workshop on origami-based structures for designing soft robots with new capabilities

We are also excited to announce a workshop on Origami-based Structures for Designing Soft Robots with New Capabilities, which will be held on Monday, May 29.

More info at: https://www.origabot.cnrs.fr/workshop-icra-2023/

Cynthia Sung receives ONR Young Investigator Award

Cynthia Sung received a 2023 ONR Young Investigator Award to work on “Salp-Inspired Reconfigurable Robot Platform for Long-Term Distributed Sensing.” We are so excited to work on this project with program manager Dr. Tom McKenna!

https://www.nre.navy.mil/2023-young-investigators

Related publication:

Zhiyuan Yang, Dongsheng Chen, David J. Levine, Cynthia Sung: Origami-inspired robot that swims via jet propulsion. In: IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 7145-7152, 2021.

Deadline Extension: Robotica Special Issue on Computational Robot Design and Customization

We’ve extended the deadline for the Robotica special issue on computational robot design and customization. Submissions will be accepted until January 15. Looking forward to seeing your submissions!

The goal of the special issue will be to address questions such as:

The special issue focuses on the following two questions:

  1. How can computational approaches enhance workflow and facilitate the design and rapid prototyping of robots?
  2. How can new materials and manufacturing approaches lead to uniform processes for fabricating robots on-demand?

Paper submission: January 15, 2019
Target publication: June 2020

For more information, check the full call for papers.