Magnetically induced stiffening for soft robotics.

Soft robots are well-suited for human-centric applications, but the compliance that gives soft robots this advantage must also be paired with adequate stiffness modulation such that soft robots can achieve more rigidity when needed. For this reason, variable stiffening mechanisms are often a necessary component of soft robot design. Many techniques have been explored to introduce variable stiffness structures into soft robots, such as pneumatically-controlled jamming and thermally-controlled phase change materials.

Design and Development of a Growing Pneumatic Soft Robot.

Soft continuum robots are getting more popular in areas such as minimally invasive surgery, search and rescue, and inspection due to their inherent compliance and flexibility. However, most of the conventional continuum robots still lack the ability to significantly change size and length. Growth as a means of robotic locomotion is a novel actuation method that can be used to overcome this disadvantage.

A Soft+Rigid Hybrid Exoskeleton Concept in Scissors-Pendulum Mode: A Suit for Human State Sensing and an Exoskeleton for Assistance.

In this paper, we present a novel concept that can enable the human aware control of exoskeletons through the integration of a soft suit and a robotic exoskeleton. Unlike the state-of-the-art exoskeleton controllers which mostly rely on lumped human-robot models, the proposed concept makes use of the independent state measurements concerning the human user and the robot. The ability to observe the human state independently is the key factor in this approach.

Instrumentation of a clinical colonoscope for surgical simulation.

This paper describes the instrumentation of a clinical colonoscope needed for a novel colonoscopy simulation framework. The simulator consists of a compact and portable haptic interface and a virtual reality environment to provide real-time visualization. The proposed instrumentation enables tracking different functions of the colonoscope while keeping the ergonomics unchanged.

A modular simulation framework for colonoscopy using a new haptic device.

We have developed a multi-threaded framework for colonoscopy simulation utilising OpenGL with an interface to a real-time prototype colonoscopy haptic device. A modular framework has enabled us to support multiple haptic devices and efficiently integrate new research into physically based modelling of the colonoscope, colon and surrounding organs. The framework supports GPU accelerated algorithms as runtime modules, allowing the real-time calculations required for haptic feedback.

A robotic indenter for minimally invasive measurement and characterization of soft tissue response.

The lack of experimental data in current literature on material properties of soft tissues in living condition has been a significant obstacle in the development of realistic soft tissue models for virtual reality based surgical simulators used in medical training. A robotic indenter was developed for minimally invasive measurement of soft tissue properties in abdominal region during a laparoscopic surgery. Using the robotic indenter, force versus displacement and force versus time responses of pig liver under static and dynamic loading conditions were successfully measured to characterize its material properties in three consecutive steps.

Real-time finite-element simulation of linear viscoelastic tissue behavior based on experimental data.

The lack of experimental data on the viscoelastic material properties of live organ tissues has been a significant obstacle in the development of realistic models. A real-time and realisti finite-element simulation of viscoelastic tissue behavior using experimental data collected by a robotic indenter offers one solution.