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It has been previously demonstrated in robots that the mimicking of functional characteristics of biologic memory can be beneficial for providing accurate learning and recognition in circumstances of social human-robot-interaction. The effective ...

As robotics and artificial intelligence have become greatly advanced, cyborgs are often envisioned as the next step in human evolution. Once only a fictional concept, nowadays, cyborg systems can be used to support people with neurological ...

When faced with uncertainty in the world, biological agents actively sense the environment to acquire the most informative input to fulfil their tasks. Actions are performed to adjust bodily sensors to maximize the collected information, which is ...

The investigation of human signals has been a topic of research since the advent of technology enabled their acquisition. Signals like gaze can reveal part of the human brain mechanisms. To facilitate the research of the analysis of these signals, ...

Brain-Machine Interface (BMI) is a control paradigm involving using brain signal to generate control commands for other devices. A non-invasive method of brain signal recording such as Electroencephalogram (EEG) is widely used. Modern approaches ...

Polyarticulated active prostheses constitute a promising solution for upper limb amputees. The bottleneck for their adoption though, is the lack of intuitive control. In this context, machine learning algorithms based on pattern recognition from ...

Plant motion patterns and structures have inspired designers, researchers and engineers for centuries. Recent advancements in analyzing and manufacturing technologies have allowed for a deeper understanding of biological principles and their ...

Material-level stiffness modulation allows for the creation of controllable energy-dissipating structures for auxiliary and training exoskeletons and the manipulation of delicate objects and tissues. These use cases require simple control systems ...

Distributed sensing of environmental parameters is going towards solutions that are more efficient by taking inspiration from flying plant seeds. Yet, present technologies mostly rely on electronics, and they are often heavy and not biodegradable. ...

The recent popularity of soft robots for marine applications has established a need for the reliable fabrication of actuators that enable locomotion, articulation, and grasping in aquatic environments. These actuators should also reduce the ...

Sewing flexible materials such as textiles and clothing can be challenging due to their tendency to wrinkle easily and their non-linear mechanical behaviour. Conventional methods in industrial plants are performed by workers and can be labour-...

The combined effects of thermo-sensitive and photothermal materials present novel actuation strategies for wireless application and the use of sustainable energy sources, such as the sunlight. To understand the operating features of ...

When hydrogels that can reversibly dehydrate/rehydrate are physically combined with a constant water supply, the cycles can be controlled by on/off states and the positions of an external light source. The shrinking upon dehydration upon ...

Soft grippers, made of flexible and deformable materials, are used to grasp and manipulate objects and represent a rapidly growing area in the field of soft robotics. Inspired by nature, biomimetic soft grippers are designed to mimic the gripping ...

This paper shows the implementation of miniature sensors for soil moisture measurement and their integration in a root-inspired burrowing growing robot. Three kinds of sensors are combined to estimate the water content in soil: a resistivity ...

Sensing and actuation are intricately connected in soft robotics, where contact may change actuator mechanics and robot behavior. To improve soft robotic control and performance, proprioception and contact sensors are needed to report robot state ...

Environmentally friendly and hygromorphic actuators have gained increasing attention for energy harvesting, field robotics, seeding and biodegradable active structures and sensors. While recent works have used hygromorphic seeds as sources of bio-...

Bioinspired robotics is a promising technology for minimizing environmental disruption during underwater inspection, exploration, and monitoring. In this research, we propose a control strategy for an underactuated robotic fish that mimics the ...

This paper describes the design and experiments of a bioinspired robot imitating the swimming behavior of cownose rays. These creatures propel themselves by moving their flat and large pectoral fins, which generate a wave that pushes back the ...

Octopus vulgaris has become an important model for motor control studies in soft robotics, due to its highly developed neural system and complexity in motion. For the past ten years, research on octopus arm motor system has provided advancements ...

The ability to grasp objects of varying stiffness is a crucial skill for robotic manipulators to perform tasks in real environments. Sensorized suction cups have been shown to be effective in grasping objects with different stiffness by measuring ...

This proposed device uses a single actuator to transition a bistable constrained compliant beam to generate undulatory motion. Undulatory locomotion is a unique form of swimming that generates thrust through the propagation of a wave through a ...

Manipulation of objects of variable size, shape and surface properties remains a challenging problem in robotics. In this paper, we present the design of a soft, pneumatically variable contact stiffness grasper and the training of a sparse, ...

The ability of animals and robots to move through a given environment without colliding with any obstacles requires a robust distance estimation mechanism. Previous electrophysiological studies and work using a biohybrid fly-robot-interface (FRI) ...