The design and fabrication of soft robot hands is still a time-consuming and difficult process. Advances in rapid prototyping have significantly accelerated the fabrication process while introducing new complexities into the design process. In this work, we present an approach that utilizes novel low-cost fabrication techniques in conjunction with design tools to help soft hand designers systematically take advantage of multi-material 3D printing to create dexterous soft robotic hands. While very low-cost and lightweight, we show that generated designs are highly durable, surprisingly strong, and capable of dexterous grasping.
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In this work, we investigate a form of dynamic contact-rich locomotion in which a robot pushes off from obstacles in order to move through its environment. We present a reflex-based approach that switches between optimized hand- crafted reflex controllers and produces smooth and predictable motions. In contrast to previous work, our approach does not rely on periodic movements, complex models of robot and contact dynamics, or extensive hand tuning. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach and evaluate its performance compared to a standard model-free RL algorithm. We identify continuous clusters of similar behaviours, which allows us to successfully transfer different push-off motions directly from simulation to a physical robot without further retraining.more » « less
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null (Ed.)There has been great progress in soft robot design, manufacture, and control in recent years, and soft robots are a tool of choice for safe and robust handling of objects in conditions of uncertainty. Still, dexterous in-hand manipulation using soft robots remains a challenge. This paper introduces foam robot hands actuated by tendons sewn through a fabric glove. The flexibility of tendon actuation allows for high competence in utilizing deformation for robust in-hand manipulation. We discuss manufacturing, control, and design optimization for foam robots and demonstrate robust grasping and in-hand manipulation on a variety of different physical hand prototypes.more » « less
