THEME · Physical AI

Hardware

Hands, wrists, actuators and arms designed in-house — mechanisms that make contact-rich manipulation safe, compliant and cheap to build.

8 projects

SHAFTIROS 2026
A Slack-Compensating, Helical-Buckling-Attenuating Flexible-Shaft Transmission for Lightweight Multi-DoF Manipulation
This study proposes SHAFT, a flexible-shaft transmission mechanism that compensates for slack with a proximal tensioner to suppress helical buckling in lightweight, remotely actuated manipulators. Compared with a flexible shaft without a tensioner, SHAFT improves transmission efficiency by about 30% and reduces angular transmission error by about 65% on a path with four 90-degree bends. Using SHAFT, we built a 6-DoF arm with a 1-DoF gripper whose arm module weighs only 280 g.
CLAWRAL 2026
A Flexible Wrist with Anisotropic and Switchable Stiffness for Contact-Rich Manipulation
CLAW is a lightweight, low-cost flexible wrist that improves learned contact-rich manipulation through passive 6-DoF compliance and switchable anisotropic stiffness.
SCU-HandICRA 2025
Soft Conical Universal Robotic Hand for Scooping Granular Media from Containers of Various Sizes
This study proposes SCU-Hand, a soft and reconfigurable end-effector designed to scoop powdered materials from containers of various sizes using a general-purpose robotic arm. By deforming a single thin sheet into a conical shape, the SCU-Hand achieves adaptive surface contact without complex sensors or control algorithms, while maintaining the stiffness needed for efficient scooping. Experimental results demonstrate that SCU-Hand achieves over 95% scooping performance across different container sizes and granular materials, outperforming conventional rigid tools by up to 20%.
PLEXUS HandICORR 2025
Lightweight Four-Motor Prosthetic Hand Enabling Precision–Lateral Dexterous Manipulation
We developed a lightweight (311g) prosthetic hand that enables both basic hand postures and precision–lateral manipulation using only four motors. This design offers a solution for daily life activities that require rotational manipulation capabilities.
WAVEIROS 2025
Worm Gear-based Adaptive Variable Elasticity for Decoupling Actuators from External Forces
present WAVE, a worm gear-based variable stiffness actuator that decouples external forces from actuators to achieve safe, compliant, and robust manipulation.
maruCHI 2024
a miniature-sized wheeled robot for swarm robotics research
maru (= miniature assemblage adaptive robot unit) is a custom-made, miniature-sized, two-wheeled robot designed specifically for tabletop swarm robotics research. This platform enables researchers and hobbyists to explore the dynamics of swarm robotics in a controlled, tabletop environment.
air-hockey-robot-v1IROS 2024
Low-Cost Air Hockey Robot Using a Five-Bar Linkage Mechanism Driven by Position-Control Servomotors
explore a new challenge in the development of a low-cost air hockey robot for human-robot-interaction research.
Twist SnakeICRA 2023
Plastic table-top cable-driven robotic arm with all motors located at the base link
explore a new challenge in transfer RL, where only a set of source policies collected under unknown diverse dynamics is available for learning a target task efficiently.

A Slack-Compensating, Helical-Buckling-Attenuating Flexible-Shaft Transmission for Lightweight Multi-DoF Manipulation

A Flexible Wrist with Anisotropic and Switchable Stiffness for Contact-Rich Manipulation

Soft Conical Universal Robotic Hand for Scooping Granular Media from Containers of Various Sizes

Lightweight Four-Motor Prosthetic Hand Enabling Precision–Lateral Dexterous Manipulation

Worm Gear-based Adaptive Variable Elasticity for Decoupling Actuators from External Forces

a miniature-sized wheeled robot for swarm robotics research

Low-Cost Air Hockey Robot Using a Five-Bar Linkage Mechanism Driven by Position-Control Servomotors

Plastic table-top cable-driven robotic arm with all motors located at the base link