Giovanni Colucci

This paper presents a reconfigurable soft gripper that is motorless, gearless, and lightweight, featuring silicone fingers actuated by nickel-titanium (Nitinol) Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) wire tendons. Each finger incorporates agonist and antagonist SMA tendons for bidirectional actuation and active neutral position recovery. Air channels embedded within the silicone matrix connect compliant bladders to miniaturized pressure sensors, enabling tactile sensing. This approach has been applied to tip contact sensing using a single membrane, as well as to a three-bladder design that enables localization of contact along the finger length. The fingers were characterized through step response, free-load deformation, and isometric tests, evaluating actuation dynamics and fingertip force generation. The prototype was mounted on a commercial robotic arm to perform pick-and-place tasks with objects of varying shapes and masses. The gripper successfully manipulated objects ranging from 0.7 to 1.5 times its characteristic finger spacing, with a maximum payload of 85 g in friction-based and 150 g in geometry-based grasping, despite a maximum fingertip force of approximately 0.22 N.

Precision agriculture has significantly advanced in recent years and is now widely used to improve the quality and sustainability of agricultural products by applying the right treatment, in the right place, at the right time. This paper presents the development and testing of AGRIMARO.Q (AGRIcultural MAte RObot), a novel omnidirectional, three-wheeled robot designed for agricultural applications in structured environments such as greenhouses. The platform features a reconfigurable track-widening mechanism that enhances its versatility by allowing it to navigate crop rows of varying widths. The paper provides a detailed discussion of the robot’s design, focusing on the track adjustment system and steering wheel drive subsystems, as well as the kinematic model and low-level control systems. Then, experimental tests are presented to evaluate both the robot’s energy consumption and its behavior in executing certain trajectories, such as row traversal and inter-row transitions, in different terrain types, replicating typical greenhouse operations.

Soft robotics is a rapidly evolving field that has attracted significant attention within the scientific community. This review analyzes the main advantages of pneumatic technology in service robots across the different application domains defined by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). By organizing the literature according to application domains, this work aims to clarify the specific benefits of pneumatic and soft pneumatic solutions in each context. The proposed approach distinguishes between traditional pneumatic solutions and the subsequent emergence of soft robotics, in order to highlight how and to what extent soft technologies have reshaped the design and application scenarios. Particular attention is devoted to the role of materials and recent manufacturing techniques used by researchers to fabricate soft pneumatic robots. Based on 163 selected papers, the analysis reveals that medical and agricultural applications dominate soft pneumatic research, accounting for 41% and 27% of the soft sample, respectively. Compared to traditional pneumatics, the medical sector has expanded into cardiac assistive devices, wearable monitoring sensors, and minimally invasive surgery; agriculture has grown from 17% to 27% of the soft literature due to precision harvesting grippers. Soft inspection robots have increased thanks to continuum manipulators and bio-inspired locomotion, while search and rescue remains a niche (9%) but promising sector. Unlike previous reviews that focus on single domains or technologies, this work quantifies the uneven transition from rigid to soft pneumatics across IFR sectors and highlights emerging application-specific design paradigms that were not feasible with traditional systems.

Soft robotics is a rapidly evolving field that has attracted significant attention within the scientific community. This review analyzes the main advantages of pneumatic technology in service robots across the different application domains defined by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). By organizing the literature according to application domains, this work aims to clarify the specific benefits of pneumatic and soft pneumatic solutions in each context. The proposed approach distinguishes between traditional pneumatic solutions and the subsequent emergence of soft robotics, in order to highlight how and to what extent soft technologies have reshaped the design and application scenarios. Particular attention is devoted to the role of materials and recent manufacturing techniques used by researchers to fabricate soft pneumatic robots. Finally, current research trends are discussed, with the goal of identifying key directions for the further development of soft pneumatic service robots.

This paper discusses the development of a sensing system based on Soft Pneumatic Sensing Chambers (SPSCs) with discretely variable stiffness. The geometric and setup parameters affecting the sensibility and stiffness of the system are first identified through a simplified analytical formulation. Then, a deformation model is implemented to estimate and compare the static performance of four notable SPSC types. Furthermore, SPSCs manufactured through different methods are experimentally characterized in terms of performance and overall reliability. Notably, it is demonstrated that the static performance can be accurately predicted across different setup pressures using the geometric data estimated from tests at a single pressure. Finally, two applications are presented, namely, tactile sensing for robotic grasping, and haptic interaction. In these contexts, the advantages of the proposed sensing system over existing solutions are discussed, highlighting the trade-off between functionality and compactness.

Breastfeeding is essential for infant nutrition, but the increasing number of women returning to work before weaning highlights the need for efficient and comfortable milk expression methods. Traditional breast pumps rely solely on vacuum suction, which can cause discomfort, tissue damage, and longer extraction times compared to natural nursing. This study aims to develop a breast pump that better mimics the biomechanics of infant breastfeeding to improve comfort and efficiency. We investigated two actuator designs–membrane and soft pleated–integrated into the breast shield to replicate infant sucking. The pleated actuator proved most effective, offering a wide range of expansion and contraction. Unlike traditional pumps, vacuum is applied through radial expansion, allowing the nipple to widen rather than elongate, closely simulating infant tongue movements. The breast shield was fabricated using additive manufacturing with soft, elastic materials, enabling complex geometries and varied stiffness. The prototype was tested against a commercial pump using an artificial breast phantom. Results suggest this design can enhance milk output, reduce pumping time, and improve user comfort. By merging soft robotics with biological insights, our approach offers a promising alternative to conventional breast pumps.

Recent advances in mobile robotics have emphasized the need for systems capable of operating in unstructured environments, combining obstacle negotiation, stability, and adaptability. This study presents the preliminary design and testing of Brush.Q, an articulated ground robot featuring a novel structure distinct from existing wheel-legged robots, equipped with compliant brush-like wheels composed of multiple spokes. The main contribution is the experimental analysis of suspension capability across different wheel geometric profiles, combined with the assessment of obstacle-climbing performance. A simplified prototype was constructed to evaluate the effects of wheel rotation direction, spoke number, and spoke tapering. Results show that reducing the number of spokes improves obstacle-climbing at the expense of suspension, while higher spoke count and compliant geometry enhance suspension and stability. Spoke tapering improves obstacle climbing in the backward-facing configuration but consistently reduces suspension. Overall, these findings highlight the critical role of wheel geometry and the potential for reconfigurable spoked wheels to enhance adaptability and versatility in unstructured terrains.