Jamming as Enabling Technology for Soft Robotics

April 29, 2011

MRSEC center: 
University of Chicago
Author(s) with affiliations: 
<p>&nbsp;</p><div style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: #ffffff; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial, Helvetica, 'Bitstream Vera Sans', sans-serif; padding: 0px; margin: 0px;"><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.5em; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px;">Eric Brown (University of Chicago),&nbsp;Nicholas Rodenberg (University of Chicago),&nbsp;John Amend (Cornell University),&nbsp;Annan Mozeika (iRobot G and I Research),&nbsp;Erik Steltz (iRobot G and I Research),&nbsp;Mitchell R. Zakin (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency),&nbsp;Hod Lipson (Cornell University),&nbsp;Heinrich M. Jaeger (University of Chicago)</p></div><p>&nbsp;</p>

Basic science concepts developed in IRG1 about jamming of granular materials enabled the development of a new class of soft robotic systems.  The image is of a jamming gripper which conforms to complex or fragile objects in the unjammed state, then hardens by jamming.  This work is a collaboration between the University of Chicago, the Cornell University Department of  Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and iRobot Corp.    

"Universal robotic gripper based on the jamming of granular material," Eric Brown, Nicholas Rodenberg, John Amend, Annan Mozeika, Eric Steltz, Mitchell R. Zakin, Hod Lipson, and Heinrich M. Jaeger, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107, 18809 (2010).
"Jamming as enabling technology for soft robotics," E. Steltz, A. Mozeika, J. Rembisz, N. Corson, and H. M. Jaeger, Proc SPIE 7642, 764225 (2010)
IRG Group Number: 
IRG I
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