Soft manipulators are known for their superiority in coping with high-safety-demanding interaction tasks, e.g., robot-assisted surgeries, elderly caring, etc. Yet the challenges residing in real-time contact feedback have hindered further applications in precise manipulation. This paper proposes an end-to-end network to estimate the 3D contact force of the soft robot, with the aim of enhancing its capabilities in interactive tasks. The presented method features directly utilizing monocular images fused with multidimensional actuation information as the network inputs. This approach simplifies the preprocessing of raw data compared to related studies that utilize 3D shape information for network inputs, consequently reducing configuration reconstruction errors. The unified feature representation module is devised to elevate low-dimensional features from the system's actuation signals to the same level as image features, facilitating smoother integration of multimodal information. The proposed method has been experimentally validated in the soft robot testbed, achieving satisfying accuracy in 3D force estimation (with a mean relative error of 0.84% compared to the best-reported result of 2.2% in the related works).
A Novel Modular Cable-Driven Soft Robotic Arm with Multi-Segment Reconfigurability
Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Mississippi State University（农业与生物工程系，密苏里州立大学）；Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Michigan State University（电气与计算机工程系，密苏里州立大学）；Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Dallas, Texas A&M University（德克萨斯A&M大学达拉斯分校农业与生命科学研究中心）
Direct Data-Driven Predictive Control for a Three-dimensional Cable-Driven Soft Robotic Arm
Department of Agricultural & Biological Engineering, Mississippi State University（农业与生物工程系，密苏里州立大学）；Department of Mechanical Engineering, Michigan State University（机械工程系，密苏里州立大学）；Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Michigan State University（电气与计算机工程系，密苏里州立大学）
Inverse Statics Optimization for Compound Tensegrity Robots
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California Berkeley（加州大学伯克利分校机械工程系）；Intelligent Systems Division, NASA Ames Research Center（NASA阿姆斯研究中心智能系统部）
A physics-informed, vision-based method to reconstruct all deformation modes in slender bodies
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering（电气与计算机工程学院）；Georgia Institute of Technology（佐治亚理工学院）；Twentieth Century Fox（二十世纪福克斯）；Starfleet Academy（星际舰队学院）；Tyrell Inc.（泰勒尔公司）
Continuous Collision Detection for a Robotic Arm Mounted on a Cable-Driven Parallel Robot
Tecnalia France（法国泰克纳利亚）；LAAS-CNRS（法国国家科学研究中心自动化系统与机器人实验室）；University of Toulouse（图卢兹大学）；LIRMM（蒙彼利埃大学与法国国家科学研究中心联合机器人与微电子机械系统实验室）；Université de Montpellier（蒙彼利埃大学）；CNRS（法国国家科学研究中心）
A Versatile Neural Network Configuration Space Planning and Control Strategy for Modular Soft Robot Arms
Biorobotics Institute and the Department of Excellence in Robotics and AI（生物机器人研究所和机器人与人工智能卓越部门）；Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna（圣安娜高等学院）；CREATE Lab（CREATE实验室）；EPFL（瑞士联邦理工学院）
A Soft High Force Hand Exoskeleton for Rehabilitation and Assistance of Spinal Cord Injury and Stroke Individuals
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai（西奈山伊坎医学院）；Grove School of Engineering（格罗夫工程学院）；City College of New York（纽约城市学院）；Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute（莫斯康复研究所）；University of Wisconsin-Madison（威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校）
Adaptive Gravity Compensation Control of a Cable-Driven Upper-Arm Soft Exosuit
Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani（皮拉尼贝拉理工学院）；PricewaterhouseCoopers（普华永道）；Indian Institute of Technology Delhi（印度理工学院德里分校）；All India Institute of Medical Sciences（全印医学科学学院）
Experimental Validation of Light Cable-Driven Elbow-Assisting Device L-CADEL Design
Pprime Institute（普里姆研究所）；CNRS（法国国家科学研究中心）；University of Poitiers（普瓦捷大学）；ENSMA（国立高等机械与航空技术学院）；University of Rome Tor Vergata（罗马第二大学）；University of Padova（帕多瓦大学）
The Quadruped Soft Tail: Compliant Grasping and Swabbing for Contamination Surveys in Harsh Environments
Mechatronics, Robotics and Operation Section, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)（欧洲核子研究中心（CERN）机电一体化、机器人与操作部门）；Department of Engineering Cybernetics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)（挪威科技大学（NTNU）工程控制论系）
