Capturing large objects of unknown shape and orientation remains a challenge for most robotic grippers. We present a highly under-actuated gripper well suited for this task. Prior work shows two primary limitations to these grippers: the grip force of each link tends to decrease as the number of links increases, and the stability of an under-actuated linkage depends on the configuration of the links so grippers with many links are unlikely to be stable for arbitrary surfaces. We address these concerns by implementing two complementary methods of stabilization: using high-friction materials and scaling forces into the surface. We show that gecko-inspired adhesives provide an adhesion-controlled friction that can stabilize the gripper and improve grasp performance without the need of large normal forces. The under-actuated linkages also conform around arbitrary shapes and provide capability beyond prior adhesion-based grippers. With these high-friction interfaces, we show highly under-actuated linkages successfully grasp in many configurations without strict stability. The gripper is capable of holding over 30 N and consists of two tendon driven linkages that are each 65 cm long. This type of gripper is well suited for tasks without a predefined target geometry or orientation such as satellite servicing.

We demonstrate a flexible, electrostatic adhesive gripper designed to controllably grasp and manipulate soft goods in space. The 8-fingered gripper has 50 cm2of active electrodes operating at 3 kV. It generates electrostatic adhesion forces up to 3.5 N (0.70 kPa) on Ge-coated polyimide film and 1.2 N on MLI blanket, a film composite used for satellite thermal insulation. Extremely low-force gripper engagement (0.08 N) and release (0.04 N) of films is ideal for micro-gravity. Individual fingers generate shear adhesion forces up to 4.76 N (5.04 kPa) using electrostatic adhesive and 45.0 N (47.6 kPa) with a hybrid electrostatic / gecko adhesive. To simulate a satellite servicing task, the gripper was mounted on a 7-DoF robot arm and performed a supervised grasp, manipulate, and release sequence on a hanging, Al-coated PET film.

Duct exploration and maintenance is a task well suited for small agile robots, which must be capable of navigating complex and irregular systems of ducts. Previously, we presented a tensegrity robot, DuCTT (Duct Climbing Tetrahedral Tensegrity), which demonstrated the plausibility of such a robot for duct exploration but was never able to successfully demonstrate climbing. Here we present DuCTTv2, redesigned from the ground up to address issues with actuator power, cable routing, compliance and synchronized control present in our first prototype. These improvements allow the prototype to be the first tensegrity robot to demonstrate duct climbing, and does so with an average climb speed of 1.4 cm/s. We also demonstrate initial tests of the prototypes ability to bend and translate its two segments relative to one another, which will allow it to navigate T-junctions and sharp corners commonly found in duct systems. Testing of the prototype is conducted to demonstrate the new faster and more robust control of motion, and analysis of dynamic simulations is presented.

A program that produces single-layer planar routing over the cells for I2L and LST2L logic arrays is described. This router has been integrated into a layout system which was previously restricted to the layout of standard cell LSI chips. When used in conjunction with a channel router, the complete routing is produced automatically. This paper defines the over-the-cell routing problem, describes the algorithms for its solution, and presents typical routing results.