Leland Stanford Junior University

University of California

California Institute of Technology

Elliot Wright Hawkes

Mark R Cutkosky

David Loyal Christensen

Srinivasan Arul Suresh

Allison Mariko Okamura

Sean Follmer

David B Camarillo

Inrak Choi

Aaron Parness

Brett A Kennedy

Joseph Davis Greer

Mac Schwager

Laura H Blumenschein

Michael G Fanton

Mehmet Kurt

Matthew C Heverly

Nathan Scot Usevitch

James Ballard

Zachary Hammond

Tyler Susko

Kyung Won Han

Erinn Sloan

Matthew Ryan Devlin

Morgan T Pope

Nicholas Naclerio

A variable friction shoe includes a midsole and an outsole. The outsole includes at least a first high-friction surface and at least a first low-friction surface, wherein the first low-friction surface remains prominent if vertical ground reaction forces (GRFs) are low and wherein the high-friction surface is prominent in response to increasing GRFs.

Variable friction shoe

Adaptable and customizable truss-like robots are provided. The robotic truss has robotic roller modules configured to translate along one or more pliable member and therewith control the shape or design of the robot.

Reconfigurable, adaptable robotic structures

A protective impact device is provided that produces an approximately constant force during compression. The device distinguishes several structural features. First, the cross-sectional area in between two impact surfaces increases over the stroke distance when compression takes place. Second, a compressible fluid containing vessel, held in between two impact surfaces, defines an outer shape with a positive second derivative slope defined from one impact surface towards the other impact surface. Third, orifices allow the fluid to bleed out from the compressible vessel when an impact force causes compression of the protective impact device. The resulting approximately constant force scales more or less linearly with impact energy, regardless of impact velocity caused by the impact force. Applications include athletic equipment, automotive bumpers, aircraft landing gear, and any other application that would benefit from maximum energy absorption during an impact.

Constant force impact protection device

A soft robot includes a main body configured as a tube inverted back inside itself to define a pressure channel, such that when the channel is pressurized, the main body everts, and inverted material everts and passes out of a tip at a distal end of the main body. A fluidization tube for passing air or other fluid through a core of the main body in the fluidization tube, wherein the fluidization tube engages the main body such that the fluidization tube is ejected as the distal end as the main body everts and joins part of the side of the main body as the main body everts and extends its distal tip.

Soft robotic device with fluid emission for burrowing and cleaning

A glove with gecko-inspired dry adhesives is provided to greatly reduce the required grasp force on heavy, smooth items. The orientation of the gecko adhesives is designed to increase shear forces between the glove and the object when lifting and manipulating. The invention additionally equips the non-gripping surfaces of the glove (e.g. back and sides) with a non-adhesive microstructure that prevents the glove from accidently adhering to surfaces during unintentional contact, even when touching otherwise sticky materials such as adhesive-coated automotive panels.

Glove with dry-adhesive and dry-non-adhesive micro-wedges

A robot for navigating an environment through growth is provided. The growing robot has a thin-walled, hollow, pressurized, compliant body that elongates the body by everting from its tip new wall material that is stored inside the body. The robot controls the shape of the body by actively controlling the relative lengths of the wall material along opposing sides of the body allowing steering.

Robotic mobility and construction by growth

The present invention provides a shear gripper device using fibrillar, gecko-inspired adhesives that have the characteristics of being non-tacky in its default state and requiring no normal force to grip a surface. The adhesion is turned 'on' by the applied shear load, and 'off as the shear load is removed. The shear adhesive gripper is able to grasp large, deformable or delicate objects using a delicate touch.

Air-bladder enhanced with gecko-adhesive for grasping applications

A controllable adhesive for non-flat surfaces is provided. The device has a conformable (i.e. flexible) film and directly cast thereto a synthetic dry adhesive film. The synthetic dry adhesive film has elastomeric wedges. The conformable film is capable to deform to a non-flat surface. In one embodiment, the controllable adhesive has a first loading mechanism at one end of the controllable adhesive to apply load to the controllable adhesive. In another embodiment, forming a gripper, the controllable adhesive has a second controllable adhesive with a second loading mechanism, such that the first and second loading mechanism face each other and join a common point of loading.

Controllable adhesive on conformable film for non-flat surfaces

A mobile, wearable haptic device (the Wolverine) designed for simulating the grasping of objects in a virtual reality interface is disclosed. The Wolverine renders a force directly between the thumb and at least one finger to simulate opposition type grasps of the objects. Mechanical design, control strategy, and performance analysis of the Wolverine system are disclosed.

Wolverine: a wearable haptic interface for grasping in virtual reality

Grasping devices and mechanisms are provided capable of grasping onto flat or curved surfaces repeatably and releasably using synthetic dry adhesives. Applications of these devices can be found in a large variety of robotic applications.

Surface grasping mechanism using directional adhesives

A method of towing or pushing an object using a micro-robot is provided that includes attaching a micro-robot, using a first dry adhesive, to a surface, where the dry adhesive includes micro wedges, where the micro wedges are attached to the surface when the micro wedges are in a deformed state, applying a load to the attached micro-robot, advancing the micro-robot, using a lifting element, where the lifting element includes a uni-directional footing, where the lifting element is disposed to detach the first dry adhesive and advance the micro-robot across the surface while the uni-directional footing is attached to the surface, where the detached first dry adhesive includes micro wedges in an free-standing state, where the load is advanced across the surface.

Dry adhesives for enhancing ground reaction forces substantially beyond friction

A mechanical and magnetic clutch is provided. The clutch includes a clutch device having a first magnet and a movable member having a plurality of magnets. The clutch device has a first position in which the clutch device and the movable member are disengaged and a second position in which the clutch device and the movable member are engaged. One of the plurality of magnets is arranged on the movable member to interact with the first magnet and move the clutch device from the first position to the second position, when the clutch device is moving at a first speed relative to the movable member. The plurality of magnets is arranged on the movable member to interact with the first magnet and keep the clutch device in the first position while the movable member is moving at a second speed relative to the clutch device.

Velocity-dependent mechanical and magnetic clutch

Novel gripping structures based on van der Waals adhesive forces are disclosed. Pads covered with fibers can be activated in pairs by opposite forces, thereby enabling control of the adhesive force in an ON or OFF state. Pads can be used in groups, each comprising a group of opposite pads. The adhesive structures enable anchoring forces that can resist adverse forces from different directions. The adhesive structures can be used to enable the operation of robots on surfaces of space vehicles.

Growing community of inventors

Santa Barbara, CA, United States of America

Elliot Wright Hawkes