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Stella, F. (author), Della Santina, C. (author), Hughes, Josie (author)The control possibilities for soft robots have long been hindered by the need for reliable methods to estimate their configuration. Inertial measurement units (IMUs) can solve this challenge, but they are affected by well-known drift issues. This letter proposes a method to eliminate this limitation by leveraging the Piecewise Constant...journal article 2024
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Lepri, M. (author), Bacciu, Davide (author), Della Santina, C. (author)This letter concerns control-oriented and structure-preserving learning of low-dimensional approximations of high-dimensional physical systems, with a focus on mechanical systems. We investigate the integration of neural autoencoders in model order reduction, while at the same time preserving Hamiltonian or Lagrangian structures. We focus on...journal article 2024
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Tavio Y Cabrera, E.J. (author), Della Santina, C. (author), Borja, Pablo (author)The compliant nature of soft robots is appealing to a wide range of applications. However, this compliant property also poses several control challenges, e.g., how to deal with infinite degrees of freedom and highly nonlinear behaviors. This paper proposes a hybrid controller for a pneumatic-actuated soft robot. To this end, a model-based...conference paper 2024
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Castañeda, Theophil Spiegeler (author), Horstman, Bart (author), Capsi-Morales, Patricia (author), Della Santina, C. (author), Piazza, Cristina (author)Adopting compliant structures holds the potential to enhance the robustness and interaction capabilities of the next generation of bionic limbs. Although researchers have proficiently explored this approach in the design of artificial hands, they devoted little attention to the development of more proximal joints. This work presents a...conference paper 2024
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Pustina, P. (author), Della Santina, C. (author), Boyer, Frederic (author), De Luca, Alessandro (author), Renda, Federico (author)Suitable representations of dynamical systems can simplify their analysis and control. On this line of thought, this article aims to answer the following question: Can a transformation of the generalized coordinates under which the actuators directly perform work on a subset of the configuration variables be found? We not only show that the...journal article 2024
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Liu, J. (author), Borja, Pablo (author), Della Santina, C. (author)This work concerns the application of physics-informed neural networks to the modeling and control of complex robotic systems. Achieving this goal requires extending physics-informed neural networks to handle nonconservative effects. These learned models are proposed to combine with model-based controllers originally developed with first...journal article 2024
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Caradonna, Daniele (author), Pierallini, M. (author), Della Santina, C. (author), Angelini, Franco (author), Bicchi, Antonio (author)Soft robots enable safe and robust operations in unstructured environments. However, the nonlinearities of their continuum structure complicate the accomplishment of classic robotic tasks, such as pick and place. In this work, we propose the R-Soft Inverted Pendulum, a Soft Inverted Pendulum (SIP) actuated only by a revolute joint at the base...journal article 2024
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Shao, X. (author), Pustina, P. (author), Stölzle, Maximilian (author), Sun, Guanghui (author), De Luca, Alessandro (author), Wu, Ligang (author), Della Santina, C. (author)Model-based strategies are a promising solution to the grand challenge of equipping continuum soft robots with motor intelligence. However, finite-dimensional models of these systems are inherently inaccurate, thus posing pressing robustness concerns. Moreover, the actuation space of soft robots is usually limited. This article aims at solving...journal article 2024
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Pustina, P. (author), Borja, Pablo (author), Della Santina, C. (author), De Luca, Alessandro (author)Soft robots are intrinsically underactuated mechanical systems that operate under uncertainties and disturbances. In these conditions, this letter proposes two versions of PID-like control laws with a saturated integral action for the particularly challenging shape regulation task. The closed-loop system is asymptotically stabilized and...journal article 2023
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Belli, I. (author), Joshi, S.D. (author), Prendergast, J.M. (author), Beck, I.L.Y. (author), Della Santina, C. (author), Peternel, L. (author), Seth, A. (author)The complexity of the human shoulder girdle enables the large mobility of the upper extremity, but also introduces instability of the glenohumeral (GH) joint. Shoulder movements are generated by coordinating large superficial and deeper stabilizing muscles spanning numerous degrees-of-freedom. How shoulder muscles are coordinated to stabilize...journal article 2023
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Calzolari, Davide (author), Della Santina, C. (author), Giordano, Alessandro M. (author), Schmidt, Annika (author), Albu-Schaffer, Alin (author)Animals rely on the elasticity of their tendons and muscles to execute robust and efficient locomotion patterns for a vast and continuous range of velocities. Replicating such capabilities in artificial systems is a long-lasting challenge in robotics. By taking advantage of a pitch dynamics decoupling spring potential, this work aims to...journal article 2023
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Trumic, Maja (author), Della Santina, C. (author), Jovanovic, Kosta (author), Fagiolini, Adriano (author)This letter investigates the stability properties of the soft inverted pendulum with affine curvature - a template model for nonlinear control of underactuated soft robots. We look at how changes in physical parameters affect stability and equilibrium. We give conditions under which zero dynamics corresponding to a collocated choice of the...journal article 2023
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Stella, F. (author), Della Santina, C. (author), Hughes, Josie (author)We show that large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, can guide the robot design process, on both the conceptual and technical level, and we propose new human–AI co-design strategies and their societal implications.journal article 2023
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Angelini, Franco (author), Angelini, Pierangela (author), Angiolini, Claudia (author), Bagella, Simonetta (author), Caccianiga, Marco (author), Della Santina, C. (author), Gigante, Daniela (author), Hutter, Marco (author), Nanayakkara, Thrishantha (author)In this paper, we first discuss the challenges related to habitat monitoring and review possible robotic solutions. Then, we propose a framework to perform terrestrial habitat monitoring exploiting the mobility of legged robotic systems. The idea is to provide the robot with the Natural Intelligence introduced as the combination of the...journal article 2023
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Della Santina, C. (author), Duriez, Christian (author), Rus, Daniela (author)From a functional standpoint, classic robots are not at all similar to biological systems. If compared with rigid robots, animals' bodies look overly redundant, imprecise, and weak. Nevertheless, animals can still perform a vast range of activities with unmatched effectiveness. Many studies in biomechanics have pointed to the elastic and...journal article 2023
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Stölzle, Maximilian (author), Chin, Lillian (author), Truby, Ryan (author), Rus, Daniela (author), Della Santina, C. (author)Electrically-actuated continuum soft robots based on Handed Shearing Auxetics (HSAs) promise rapid actuation capabilities while preserving structural compliance. However, the foundational models of these novel actuators required for precise control strategies are missing. This paper proposes two key components extending discrete Cosserat rod...conference paper 2023
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Stella, F. (author), Guan, Qinghua (author), Della Santina, C. (author), Hughes, Josie (author)Soft robot are celebrated for their propensity to enable compliant and complex robot-environment interactions. Soft robotic manipulators, or slender continuum structure robots have the potential to exploit these interactions to enable new exploration and manipulation capabilities and safe human-robot interactions. However, the interactions, or...conference paper 2023
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FinFix: A Soft Gripper With Contact-Reactive Reflex for High-Speed Pick and Place of Fragile ObjectsHeeringa, W.M. (author), Della Santina, C. (author), Smit, G. (author)Industrial automation calls for precise tasks with cycle times reduced to the minimum. At the same time, when handling delicate products such as fruits and vegetables, accelerations must be kept low to keep interaction forces under a certain threshold to avoid damage. This trade-off hinders the penetration of automation in many relevant...conference paper 2023
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Drost, S.C. (author), Pustina, P. (author), Angelini, Franco (author), De Luca, Alessandro (author), Smit, G. (author), Della Santina, C. (author)Performing precise, repetitive motions is essential in many robotic and automation systems. Iterative learning control (ILC) allows determining the necessary control command by using a very rough system model to speed up the process. Functional iterative learning control is a novel technique that promises to solve several limitations of classic...conference paper 2023
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Pierallini, M. (author), Stella, F. (author), Angelini, Franco (author), Deutschmann, Bastian (author), Hughes, Josie (author), Bicchi, Antonio (author), Garabini, Manolo (author), Della Santina, C. (author)Fully exploiting soft robots' capabilities requires devising strategies that can accurately control their movements with the limited amount of control sources available. This task is challenging for reasons including the hard-to-model dynamics, the system's underactuation, and the need of using a prominent feedforward control action to...journal article 2023