Proboscidean sensitive soft robot for versatile gripping

Project Information

PROBOSCIS

Grant agreement ID: 863212

DOI

10.3030/863212

Project closed

EC signature date 24 September 2019

Start date 1 November 2019

End date 30 April 2025

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Future and Emerging Technologies (FET)

Total cost

€ 3 473 438,75

EU contribution

€ 3 473 438,75

Coordinated by

FONDAZIONE ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI TECNOLOGIA
Italy

CORDIS provides links to public deliverables and publications of HORIZON projects.

Links to deliverables and publications from FP7 projects, as well as links to some specific result types such as dataset and software, are dynamically retrieved from OpenAIRE .

Deliverables

Demonstrators, pilots, prototypes (4)

PROBOSCIS final prototype

Based on the results obtained with early prototype, the final version of PROBOSCIS is developed and delivered.

Full 3D high-resolution anatomical model with associated material properties

The final results on 3D high-resolution anatomical model with associated material properties are reported.

Extended tactile skin

The bioinspired large area tactile skin, based on results of D6.3, is fabricated and tested

Development of multimodal sensing components

Sensing components, exploiting also 3D micro and nanostructures, able to detect multiple mechanical cues (i.e. pressure, tangential forces, air/fluid flow, etc) are designed, fabricated and tested.

Documents, reports (7)

Definition of functional materials for 2D and 3D sensing

The choices of functional materials for developing the tip and of the outer skin are explained in view of the utilization of the 3D printing methods are presented

Definition of functional materials for actuators

The choices of functional materials that will be used for developing for fabrication of durable integrated actuators are presented

Communication, dissemination and exploitation plan (CoDE plan) - updated

The updated report of the COmmunication, Dissemination and Exploitation plan is released

Communication, dissemination and exploitation plan (CoDE plan) – first release

The first report of the COmmunication, Dissemination and Exploitation plan is released

Analysis of solutions for 2D and 3D multimodal sensing

The analysis of the State of the Art on planar and 3D structures for multimodal mechanical sensing is performed.

Definition of experimental protocols

The experimental protocols for evaluating the PROBOSCIS prototypes in selected scenarios are described

PROBOSCIS reaching control

The high-level controller of the continuum arm is described in this deliverable, explaining the control strategies for tasks such as reaching an object.

Websites, patent fillings, videos etc. (1)

Project website and dissemination materials

Project website and dissemination materials are delivered

Open Research Data Pilot (1)

Data Management Plan I (DMP)

The first Data Management Plan is released

Publications

Conference proceedings (9)

Smell Driven Navigation for Soft Robotic Arms: Artificial Nose and Control

Author(s): Francesco Piqué; Francesco Stella; Josie Hughes; Egidio Falotico; Cosimo Della Santina
Published in: Proceedings of IEEE Conference on Soft Robotics, 2023
Publisher: IEEE
DOI: 10.1109/robosoft55895.2023.10122116

A bistable soft gripper with mechanically embedded sensing and actuation for fast grasping

Author(s): Thuruthel T. G.; Haider Abidi S.; Cianchetti M.; Laschi C.; Falotico E.
Published in: Proceedings of the 29th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, RO-MAN 2020. (pp. pp. 1049-1054). IEEE (2020), 2020
Publisher: IEEE
DOI: 10.1109/ro-man47096.2020.9223487

Open-loop Model-free Dynamic Control of a Soft Manipulator for Tracking Tasks

Author(s): Andrea Centurelli, Alessandro Rizzo, Silvia Tolu, Egidio Falotico
Published in: 2021 20th International Conference on Advanced Robotics, ICAR 2021, 2021
Publisher: IEEE
DOI: 10.1109/icar53236.2021.9659370

GRACE: GeometRy-based Actuators that Contract and Elongate

Author(s): De Pascali, Corrado; Naselli, Giovanna Adele; Palagi, Stefano; Scharff, Rob Bernardus Nicolaas; Mazzolai, Barbara
Published in: 2022 I-RIM Conference, 2022, ISBN 9788894580532
Publisher: Zenodo
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7531361

Policy Adaptation using an Online Regressing Network in a Soft Robotic Arm

Author(s): Muhammad Sunny Nazeer; Diego Bianchi; Giulia Campinoti; Cecilia Laschi; Egidio Falotico
Published in: Proceedings of IEEE Conference on Soft Robotics, 2023
Publisher: IEEE
DOI: 10.1109/robosoft55895.2023.10121927

A Learning-based Approach for Adaptive Closed-loop Control of a Soft Robotic Arm

Author(s): Pique, Francesco; Kalidindi, Hari Teja; Menciassi, Arianna; Laschi, Cecilia; Falotico, Egidio
Published in: 202 I-RIM Conference, 2021
Publisher: Zenodo
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4781427

Open-loop Control of a Soft Arm in Throwing Tasks

Author(s): Diego Bianchi, Michele Antonelli, Cecilia Laschi, Egidio Falotico
Published in: Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics - ICINCO, 2022, ISBN 978-989-758-585-2
Publisher: ScitePress
DOI: 10.5220/0011267100003271

Grasping of Li-ion Batteries via Additively Manufactured Soft Gripper and Collaborative Robot

Author(s): Savas Dilibal, Emre Tugberk Gulnergiz, Niccolò Pagliarani, Enrico Donato, Francesco Iori, Elisa Setti, Egidio Falotico, Matteo Cianchett
Published in: 2022 International Congress on Human-Computer Interaction, Optimization and Robotic Applications (HORA), 2022
Publisher: IEEE
DOI: 10.1109/hora55278.2022.9799902

Whole-arm Grasping Strategy for Soft Arms to Capture Space Debris

Author(s): Agabiti, Camilla; Ménager, Etienne; Falotico, Egidio
Published in: 2023 IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft), 2023
Publisher: IEEE
DOI: 10.1109/robosoft55895.2023.10122076

Peer reviewed articles (27)

Triaxial 3-D-Channeled Soft Optical Sensor for Tactile Robots

Author(s): Matteo Lo Preti, Federico Bernabei, Anderson B. Nardin, Lucia Beccai
Published in: IEEE Sensors Journal, Issue 24, 2024, Page(s) 27956-27965, ISSN 1530-437X
Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
DOI: 10.1109/jsen.2024.3425835

3D-printed hierarchical arrangements of actuators mimicking biological muscular architectures

Author(s): De Pascali, Corrado; Palagi, Stefano; Mazzolai, Barbara
Published in: Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, 2023, ISSN 1748-3190
Publisher: IOP PUblishing
DOI: 10.1088/1748-3190/acd159

Mechanical Sensing in Embodied Agents

Author(s): Preti, Matteo Lo; Thuruthel, Thomas George; Gilday, Kieran; Beccai, Lucia; Iida, Fumiya
Published in: IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 2021, ISSN 1757-899X
Publisher: IOP Publishing
DOI: 10.1088/1757-899x/1261/1/012013

Tunable Lotus Leaf Effect by Three-Dimensionally Printed Stretchable Objects

Author(s): Noa Trink, Shlomo Magdassi
Published in: ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Issue 16, 2024, Page(s) 64276-64286, ISSN 1944-8244
Publisher: American Chemical Society
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.4c14238

Soft DAgger: Sample-Efficient Imitation Learning for Control of Soft Robots

Author(s): Muhammad Sunny Nazeer , Cecilia Laschi, Egidio Falotico
Published in: Sensors, 2023, ISSN 1424-8220
Publisher: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)
DOI: 10.3390/s23198278

Sensing Deformation in Vacuum Driven Foam-Based Actuator via Inductive Method

Author(s): Seonggun Joe, Hongbo Wang, Massimo Totaro, Lucia Beccai
Published in: Frontiers in Robotics and AI, Issue 22969144, 2021, ISSN 2296-9144
Publisher: Frontiers
DOI: 10.3389/frobt.2021.742885

Elephants evolved strategies reducing the biomechanical complexity of their trunk.

Author(s): Paule Dagenais; Paule Dagenais; Sean Hensman; Valérie Haechler; Michel C. Milinkovitch; Michel C. Milinkovitch
Published in: Current biology, 2021, ISSN 0960-9822
Publisher: Cell Press
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.08.029

Closed-Loop Dynamic Control of a Soft Manipulator Using Deep Reinforcement Learning

Author(s): Andrea Centurelli, Luca Arleo, Alessandro Rizzo, Silvia Tolu, Cecilia Laschi, Egidio Falotico
Published in: IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Issue 23773766, 2022, ISSN 2377-3766
Publisher: IEEE
DOI: 10.1109/lra.2022.3146903

Ablation Study of a Dynamic Model for a 3D-Printed Pneumatic Soft Robotic Arm

Author(s): Carlo Alessi; Egidio Falotico; Alessandro Lucantonio
Published in: IEEE Access, 2023, ISSN 2169-3536
Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
DOI: 10.1109/access.2023.3266282

RL-Based Adaptive Controller for High Precision Reaching in a Soft Robot Arm

Author(s): Muhammad Sunny Nazeer , Cecilia Laschi, Egidio Falotico
Published in: IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 2024, ISSN 1552-3098
Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
DOI: 10.1109/tro.2024.3381558

Editorial: Machine Learning Techniques for Soft Robots

Author(s): Thomas George Thuruthel, Egidio Falotico, Lucia Beccai, Fumiya Iida
Published in: Frontiers in Robotics and AI, Issue 22969144, 2021, ISSN 2296-9144
Publisher: Frontiers Media S.A.
DOI: 10.3389/frobt.2021.726774

Design and 3D printing of soft optical waveguides towards monolithic perceptive systems

Author(s): Petr Trunin, Diana Cafiso, Lucia Beccai
Published in: Additive Manufacturing, Issue 100, 2025, Page(s) 104687, ISSN 2214-8604
Publisher: Elsevier BV
DOI: 10.1016/j.addma.2025.104687

3D-printed biomimetic artificial muscles using soft actuators that contract and elongate

Author(s): Corrado De Pascali, Giovanna Adele Naselli, Stefano Palagi, Rob B. N. Sharff, Barbara Mazzolai
Published in: Science Robotics, Issue 24709476, 2022, ISSN 2470-9476
Publisher: AAAS
DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.abn4155

Stretchable reflective coating for soft optical waveguides and sensors

Author(s): Simone Lantean; Matteo Lo Preti; Lucia Beccai
Published in: Soft Matter, 2022, ISSN 1744-6848
Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
DOI: 10.1039/d2sm00869f

Jointless Bioinspired Soft Robotics by Harnessing Micro and Macroporosity

Author(s): Seonggun Joe, Ouriel Bliah, Shlomo Magdassi, Lucia Beccai
Published in: Advanced Science, 2023, ISSN 2198-3844
Publisher: Wiley
DOI: 10.1002/advs.202302080

Tactile Object Recognition With Recurrent Neural Networks Through a Perceptive Soft Gripper

Author(s): Enrico Donato, David Pelliccia, Matin Hosseinzadeh, Mahmood Amiri, Egidio Falotico
Published in: IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Issue 10, 2025, Page(s) 7023-7030, ISSN 2377-3766
Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
DOI: 10.1109/lra.2025.3572422

Development of the Ultralight Hybrid Pneumatic Artificial Muscle: Modelling and optimization.

Author(s): Seonggun Joe; Massimo Totaro; Hongbo Wang; Lucia Beccai
Published in: PLoS ONE, 2021, ISSN 1932-6203
Publisher: Public Library of Science
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0250325

SofToss: Learning to Throw Objects With a Soft Robot

Author(s): Diego Bianchi , Michele Gabrio Antonelli , Cecilia Laschi , Angelo Maria Sabatini, and Egidio Falotico
Published in: IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine, 2023, ISSN 1070-9932
Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
DOI: 10.1109/mra.2023.3310865

Sensorized Objects Used to Quantitatively Study Distal Grasping in the African Elephant

Author(s): Matteo Lo Preti; Lucia Beccai
Published in: iScience, 2023, ISSN 2589-0042
Publisher: Cell Press, Elsevier
DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4366155

Controlling Soft Robotic Arms Using Continual Learning

Author(s): Francesco Piqué, Hari Teja Kalidindi, Lorenzo Fruzzetti, Cecilia Laschi, Arianna Menciassi, Egidio Falotico
Published in: IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Issue 23773766, 2022, ISSN 2377-3766
Publisher: IEEE
DOI: 10.1109/lra.2022.3157369

Online Pressure Map Reconstruction in a Multitouch Soft Optical Waveguide Skin

Author(s): Matteo Lo Preti; Massimo Totaro; Egidio Falotico; Marco Crepaldi; Lucia Beccai
Published in: IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, Issue 10834435, 2022, ISSN 1083-4435
Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
DOI: 10.1109/tmech.2022.3158979

Pushing with Soft Robotic Arms via Deep Reinforcement Learning

Author(s): Carlo Alessi, Diego Bianchi, Gianni Stano, Matteo Cianchetti, Egidio Falotico
Published in: Advanced Intelligent Systems, Issue 6, 2024, ISSN 2640-4567
Publisher: Wiley
DOI: 10.1002/aisy.202300899

Robust Fractional-Order Control Using a Decoupled Pitch and Roll Actuation Strategy for the I-Support Soft Robot

Author(s): Jorge Muñoz, Francesco Piqué, Concepción A. Monje, Egidio Falotico
Published in: MDPI Mathematics, Issue 22277390, 2021, ISSN 2227-7390
Publisher: MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/math9070702

Soft Mechanosensing via 3D Printing: A review

Author(s): Diana Cafiso, Simone Lantean , Candido Fabrizio Pirri, Lucia Beccai
Published in: Advanced Intelligent Systems, 2023, ISSN 2640-4567
Publisher: Wiley
DOI: 10.1002/aisy.202200373

Multi-Material 3D Printed Shape Memory Polymer with Tunable Melting and Glass Transition Temperature Activated by Heat or Light

Author(s): Ela Sachyani Keneth , Rama Lieberman , Matthew Rednor , Giulia Scalet, Ferdinando Auricchio and Shlomo Magdassi
Published in: Polymers, 2020, ISSN 2073-4360
Publisher: MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/polym12030710

SoftSling: A Soft Robotic Arm Control Strategy to Throw Objects With Circular Run-Ups

Author(s): Diego Bianchi, Giulia Campinoti, Costanza Comitini, Cecilia Laschi, Alessandro Rizzo, Angelo Maria Sabatini, Egidio Falotico
Published in: IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, Issue 9, 2024, Page(s) 8250-8257, ISSN 2377-3766
Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
DOI: 10.1109/lra.2024.3442535

Learning Controllers for Continuum Soft Manipulators: Impact of Modeling and Looming Challenges

Author(s): Egidio Falotico, Enrico Donato, Carlo Alessi, Elisa Setti, Muhammad Sunny Nazeer, Camilla Agabiti, Daniele Caradonna, Diego Bianchi, Francesco Piqué, Yasmin Tauqeer Ansari, Marc Killpack
Published in: Advanced Intelligent Systems, Issue 7, 2025, ISSN 2640-4567
Publisher: Wiley
DOI: 10.1002/aisy.202400344

Book chapters (1)

A Review on Vacuum-Powered Fluidic Actuators in Soft Robotics

Author(s): Seonggun Joe, Federico Bernabei, Lucia Beccai
Published in: Rehabilitation of the Human Bone-Muscle System, 2022
Publisher: IntechOpen
DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.104373