@conference {3719, title = {Comparison of Three Hand Pose Reconstruction Algorithms Using Inertial and Magnetic Measurement Units}, booktitle = {18th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots, Humanoids 2018}, year = {2019}, doi = {10.1109/HUMANOIDS.2018.8624929}, url = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8624929}, author = {P. J. Kieliba and P. H. Veltink and T. Lisini Baldi and D. Pratichizzo and G. Santaera and A. Bicchi and M. Bianchi and B. J. F. Van Beijnum} } @article {3119, title = {Controlling Soft Robots: Balancing Feedback and Feedforward Elements}, journal = {IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine}, volume = {24}, year = {2017}, note = {

This work is supported by European Commission grant H2020-ICT-645599 ({\textquotedblleft}SOMA{\textquotedblright}: SOft Manipulation) and European Research Council Advanced grant 291166 ({\textquotedblleft}SoftHands{\textquotedblright}).

}, month = {05/2017}, pages = {75 - 83}, abstract = {

Soft robots (SRs) represent one of the most significant recent evolutions in robotics. Designed to embody safe and natural behaviors, they rely on compliant physical structures purposefully designed to embody desirable and sometimes variable impedance characteristics. This article discusses the problem of controlling SRs. We start by observing that most of the standard methods of robotic control{\textemdash}e.g., high-gain robust control, feedback linearization, backstepping, and active impedance control{\textemdash}effectively fight against or even completely cancel the physical dynamics of the system, replacing them with a desired model. This defeats the purpose of introducing physical compliance. After all, what is the point of building soft actuators if we then make them stiff by control? An alternative to such approaches can be conceived by observing humans, who can obtain good motion accuracy and repeatability while maintaining the intrinsic softness of their bodies. In this article, we show that an anticipative model of human motor control, using a feedforward action combined with low-gain feedback, can be used to achieve human-like behavior. We present an implementation of such an idea that uses iterative learning control. Finally, we present the experimental results of the application of such learned anticipative control to a physically compliant robot. The control application achieves the desired behavior much better than a classical feedback controller used for comparison.

}, keywords = {Robotics}, issn = {1070-9932}, doi = {10.1109/MRA.2016.2636360}, url = {http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=7930438}, author = {C. Della Santina and M. Bianchi and G. Grioli and F. Angelini and M. G. Catalano and M. Garabini and A. Bicchi} } @article {2685, title = {The Change in Fingertip Contact Area as a Novel Proprioceptive Cue}, journal = {Current Biology}, volume = {26}, year = {2016}, month = {05/2016}, pages = {1159{\textendash}1163}, abstract = {

Humans, many animals, and certain robotic hands have deformable fingertip pads. Deformable pads have the advantage of conforming to the objects that are being touched, ensuring a stable grasp for a large range of forces and shapes. Pad deformations change with finger displacements during touch. Pushing a finger against an external surface typically provokes an increase of the gross contact area, potentially providing a relative motion cue, a situation comparable to looming in vision. The rate of increase of the area of contact also depends on the compliance of the object. Because objects normally do not suddenly change compliance, participants may interpret an artificially induced variation in compliance, which coincides with a change in the gross contact area, as a change in finger displacement, and consequently they may misestimate their finger{\textquoteright}s position relative to the touched object. To test this, we asked participants to compare the perceived displacements of their finger while contacting an object varying pseudo-randomly in compliance from trial to trial. Results indicate a bias in the perception of finger displacement induced by the change in compliance, hence in contact area, indicating that participants interpreted the altered cutaneous input as a cue to proprioception. This situation highlights the capacity of the brain to take advantage of knowledge of the mechanical properties of the body and of the external environment.

}, keywords = {Haptics, Robotics}, doi = {10.1016/j.cub.2016.02.052}, url = {http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982216301348}, author = {A. Moscatelli and M. Bianchi and A. Serio and A. Terekhov and V. Hayward and M. Ernst and A. Bicchi} } @conference {2454, title = {Characterization of Nonlinear Finger Pad Mechanics for Tactile Rendering}, booktitle = {IEEE World Haptics Conference}, year = {2015}, note = {

softhands, werahap

}, pages = {63-68}, address = {Chicago, USA, 22-25 June 2015}, abstract = {

The computation of skin forces and deformations for\ tactilerendering\ requires an accurate model of the extremely\ nonlinear\ behavior of the skin. In this work, we investigate the\ characterization\ of\ fingermechanics\ with the goal of designing accurate\ nonlinear\ models for\ tactilerendering. First, we describe a measurement setup that enables the acquisition of contact force and contact area in the context of controlled\ finger\ indentation experiments. Second, we describe an optimization procedure that estimates the parameters of strain-limiting deformation models that match best the acquired data. We show that the acquisition setup allows the measurement of force and area information with high repeatability, and the estimation method reaches\ nonlinear\ models that match the measured data with high accuracy.

}, keywords = {Haptics, Robotics}, doi = {10.1109/WHC.2015.7177692}, url = {http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=\&arnumber=7177692}, author = {E. Miguel and M. L. D{\textquoteright}Angelo and F. Cannella and M. Bianchi and M Memeo and A. Bicchi and D. G. Caldwell and M. A. Otaduy} } @conference {2086, title = {A change in the fingertip contact area induces an illusory displacement of the finger}, booktitle = {Eurohaptics}, volume = {LNCS - Free Preview Haptics: Neuroscience, Devices, Modeling, and Applications}, year = {2014}, pages = {72 - 79}, publisher = {Springer-Verlag}, organization = {Springer-Verlag}, address = {Versailles, France), June 2014}, keywords = {Haptics, Robotics}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-662-44196-1_10}, author = {A. Moscatelli and M. Bianchi and A. Serio and Al Atassi, O. and S. Fani and A. Terekhov and V. Hayward and M. Ernst and A. Bicchi} } @article {1234, title = {Characterization and Psychophysical Studies of an Air-Jet Lump Display}, journal = {Transactions on Haptics}, year = {2013}, pages = {156 - 166}, keywords = {Robotics}, doi = {10.1109/TOH.2012.71 }, author = {J.C Gwilliam and M. Bianchi and L. K. Su and A.M. Okamura} } @conference {BGDO11, title = {Characterization of an Air Jet Haptic Lump Display}, booktitle = {33rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC 2011)}, year = {2011}, pages = {3467-3470}, keywords = {Haptics, Robotics}, author = {M. Bianchi and J.C Gwilliam and A. Degirmenci and A.M. Okamura} }