Invention Description Navigating complex and obstacle-rich environments is a major challenge for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), especially in spaces where GPS signals are unavailable or prior environmental maps do not exist. Traditional drones are highly vulnerable to collisions, which can disrupt navigation, damage hardware, and limit their effectiveness...

Invention Description Soft exosuits have the potential to improve mobility and reduce physical strain during walking, but providing effective assistance across different users and walking conditions remains challenging. Traditional learning control systems often require extensive tuning, large amounts of training data, or simulation environments that...

Invention Description Collision-resilient quadrotors are designed to leverage impacts and perform agile maneuvers in cluttered environments; however, current models face a trade-off between two limited modes: Rigid protection and flexible adaptation. With rigid protection designs, there are safeguards that prevent damage, but they cannot deform to...

Background Utility pipes are a crucial component of public health and safety infrastructure, and it is critical to conduct regular inspections to ensure functionality. Currently, most pipes are inspected by human operators, which can pose safety concerns as well as inaccuracy and limited accessibility. As an alternative, in-pipe robots are increasingly...

­Soft robotics is a growing field of study encompassing biology, chemistry, materials science, and engineering. Soft robots can be used for safe and adaptive interaction with humans and harsh environments, manipulation of delicate objects, navigation through a confined space, and actuation with multiple degrees of freedom. One key element in soft...

Background Drones have provided significant improvements for industries including surveillance, research, and agriculture with their highly advanced aerial abilities. They provide enhanced safety and security measures and allow critical tasks to be completed remotely. Drones enable goods to be transported rapidly to remote areas with little infrastructure...

Lower-extremity hemiparesis, characterized by weakness or partial paralysis on one side of the body, significantly impacts a vast majority of stroke survivors. As a result, physical therapy intervention is crucial for the successful recovery and rehabilitation of a patient's gait cycle. During these sessions, physical therapists implement corrective...

Background Physical human-robot interaction (pHRI) is increasingly used in applications where a human model needs to be developed to anticipate future actions including robot-assisted rehabilitation, robotic surgery, and collaborative manufacturing. Modeling humans is a challenging task because of the inherent uncertainties of human decision-making,...

Background Recent designs for quadrotors have focused on improving mechanical feasibility, including foldable and reconfigurable bodies. Foldable quadrotors, for example, are capable of flying through small openings and cluttered spaces. However, there has been limited research conducted on the tracking performance of the quadrotor during in-flight...

Multi-robot systems (MRS) composed of multiple mobile robots have been used for various collective exploration and perception tasks, such as mapping unknown environments, disaster response, and surveillance and monitoring. The performance of MRS in such applications is constrained by the capabilities of the payloads that the robots can carry on-board,...