Abstract-- Dexterous in-hand manipulation remains a foun-dational challenge in robotics, with progress often constrained by the prevailing paradigm of imitating the human hand. This anthropomorphic approach creates two critical barriers: 1) it limits robotic capabilities to tasks humans can already perform, and 2) it makes data collection for learning-based methods exceedingly difficult. Both challenges are caused by traditional force-closure which requires coordinating complex, multi-point contacts based on friction, normal force, and gravity to grasp an object. This makes teleoperated demonstrations unstable and amplifies the sim-to-real gap for reinforcement learning. In this work, we propose a paradigm shift: moving away from replicating human mechanics toward the design of novel robotic embodiments. We introduce the Suction Leap-Hand (SLeap Hand), a multi-fingered hand featuring integrated fingertip suction cups that realize a new form of suction-enabled dexterity. More importantly, this suction-based embodiment unlocks a new class of dexterous skills that are difficult or even impossible for the human hand, such as one-handed paper cutting and in-hand writing. Our work demonstrates that by moving beyond anthropomorphic constraints, novel embodiments can not only lower the barrier for collecting robust manipulation data but also enable the stable, single-handed completion of tasks that would typically require two human hands. Dexterous manipulation, the ability to reconfigure objects within a single hand, remains a grand challenge in robotics [1], [2]. The dominant paradigm for achieving this goal has been data-driven learning on anthropomorphic hands, an approach that has led to successes in grasping and reorientation [3], [4], [5].

Achieving seamless integration of aerial flight, ground driving, and wall climbing within a single robotic platform remains a major challenge, as existing designs often rely on additional adhesion actuators that increase complexity, reduce efficiency, and compromise reliability. To address these limitations, we present PerchMobi^3, a quad-fan, negative-pressure, air-ground-wall robot that implements a propulsion-adhesion power-reuse mechanism. By repurposing four ducted fans to simultaneously provide aerial thrust and negative-pressure adhesion, and integrating them with four actively driven wheels, PerchMobi^3 eliminates dedicated pumps while maintaining a lightweight and compact design. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first quad-fan prototype to demonstrate functional power reuse for multi-modal locomotion. A modeling and control framework enables coordinated operation across ground, wall, and aerial domains with fan-assisted transitions. The feasibility of the design is validated through a comprehensive set of experiments covering ground driving, payload-assisted wall climbing, aerial flight, and cross-mode transitions, demonstrating robust adaptability across locomotion scenarios. These results highlight the potential of PerchMobi^3 as a novel design paradigm for multi-modal robotic mobility, paving the way for future extensions toward autonomous and application-oriented deployment.

Shape-morphing robots have shown benefits in industrial grasping. We propose form-flexible grippers for adaptive grasping. The design is based on the hybrid jamming and suction mechanism, which deforms to handle objects that vary significantly in size from the aperture, including both larger and smaller parts. Compared with traditional grippers, the gripper achieves self-closing to form an airtight seal. Under a vacuum, a wide range of grasping is realized through the passive morphing mechanism at the interface that harmonizes pressure and flow rate. This hybrid gripper showcases the capability to securely grasp an egg, as small as 54.5% of its aperture, while achieving a maximum load-to-mass ratio of 94.3.

This paper presents an innovative solution to the issue of infrastructure deterioration in the U.S., where a significant portion of facilities are in poor condition, and over 130,000 steel bridges have exceeded their lifespan. Aging steel structures face corrosion and hidden defects, posing major safety risks. The Silver Bridge collapse, resulting from an undetected flaw, highlights the limitations of manual inspection methods, which often miss subtle or concealed defects. Addressing the need for improved inspection technology, this work introduces an AI-powered magnetic inspection robot. Equipped with magnetic wheels, the robot adheres to and navigates complex ferromagnetic surfaces, including challenging areas like vertical inclines and internal corners, enabling thorough, large-scale inspections. Utilizing MobileNetV2, a deep learning model trained on steel surface defects, the system achieved an 85% precision rate across six defect types. This AI-driven inspection process enhances accuracy and reliability, outperforming traditional methods in defect detection and efficiency. The findings suggest that combining robotic mobility with AI-based image analysis offers a scalable, automated approach to infrastructure inspection, reducing human labor while improving detection precision and the safety of critical assets.

To achieve real-world functionality, robots must have the ability to carry out decision-making computations. However, soft robots stretch and therefore need a solution other than rigid computers. Examples of embedding computing capacity into soft robots currently include appending rigid printed circuit boards (PCBs) to the robot, integrating soft logic gates, and exploiting material responses for material-embedded computation. Although promising, these approaches introduce limitations such as rigidity, tethers, or low logic gate density. The field of stretchable electronics has sought to solve these challenges, but a complete pipeline for direct integration of single-board computers, microcontrollers, and other complex circuitry into soft robots has remained elusive. We present a generalized method to translate any complex two-layer circuit into a soft, stretchable form. This enabled the creation of stretchable single-board microcontrollers (including Arduinos) and other commercial circuits (including Sparkfun circuits), without design simplifications. As demonstrations of the method's utility, we embed highly stretchable (>300% strain) Arduino Pro Minis into the bodies of multiple soft robots. This makes use of otherwise inert structural material, fulfilling the promise of the stretchable electronics field to integrate state-of-the-art computational power into robust, stretchable systems during active use.

Fibrillar adhesion, observed in animals like beetles, spiders, and geckos, relies on nanoscopic or microscopic fibrils to enhance surface adhesion via 'contact splitting.' This concept has inspired engineering applications across robotics, transportation, and medicine. Recent studies suggest that functional grading of fibril properties can improve adhesion, but this is a complex design challenge that has only been explored in simplified geometries. While machine learning (ML) has gained traction in adhesive design, no previous attempts have targeted fibril-array scale optimization. In this study, we propose an ML-based tool that optimizes the distribution of fibril compliance to maximize adhesive strength. Our tool, featuring two deep neural networks (DNNs), recovers previous design results for simple geometries and introduces novel solutions for complex configurations. The Predictor DNN estimates adhesive strength based on random compliance distributions, while the Designer DNN optimizes compliance for maximum strength using gradient-based optimization. Our method significantly reduces test error and accelerates the optimization process, offering a high-performance solution for designing fibrillar adhesives and micro-architected materials aimed at fracture resistance by achieving equal load sharing (ELS).

For robot arms to perform everyday tasks in unstructured environments, these robots must be able to manipulate a diverse range of objects. Today's robots often grasp objects with either soft grippers or rigid end-effectors. However, purely rigid or purely soft grippers have fundamental limitations: soft grippers struggle with irregular, heavy objects, while rigid grippers often cannot grasp small, numerous items. In this paper we therefore introduce RISOs, a mechanics and controls approach for unifying traditional RIgid end-effectors with a novel class of SOft adhesives. When grasping an object, RISOs can use either the rigid end-effector (pinching the item between non-deformable fingers) and/or the soft materials (attaching and releasing items with switchable adhesives). This enhances manipulation capabilities by combining and decoupling rigid and soft mechanisms. With RISOs robots can perform grasps along a spectrum from fully rigid, to fully soft, to rigid-soft, enabling real time object manipulation across a 1 million times range in weight (from 2 mg to 2 kg). To develop RISOs we first model and characterize the soft switchable adhesives. We then mount sheets of these soft adhesives on the surfaces of rigid end-effectors, and develop control strategies that make it easier for robot arms and human operators to utilize RISOs. The resulting RISO grippers were able to pick-up, carry, and release a larger set of objects than existing grippers, and participants also preferred using RISO. Overall, our experimental and user study results suggest that RISOs provide an exceptional gripper range in both capacity and object diversity. See videos of our user studies here: https://youtu.be/du085R0gPFI

Atomic force microscopy (AFM or SPM) imaging is one of the best matches with machine learning (ML) analysis among microscopy techniques. The digital format of AFM images allows for direct utilization in ML algorithms without the need for additional processing. Additionally, AFM enables the simultaneous imaging of distributions of over a dozen different physicochemical properties of sample surfaces, a process known as multidimensional imaging. While this wealth of information can be challenging to analyze using traditional methods, ML provides a seamless approach to this task. However, the relatively slow speed of AFM imaging poses a challenge in applying deep learning methods broadly used in image recognition. This Prospective is focused on ML recognition/classification when using a relatively small number of AFM images, small database. We discuss ML methods other than popular deep-learning neural networks. The described approach has already been successfully used to analyze and classify the surfaces of biological cells. It can be applied to recognize medical images, specific material processing, in forensic studies, even to identify the authenticity of arts. A general template for ML analysis specific to AFM is suggested, with a specific example of the identification of cell phenotype. Special attention is given to the analysis of the statistical significance of the obtained results, an important feature that is often overlooked in papers dealing with machine learning. A simple method for finding statistical significance is also described.

One of the trendsetting themes in soft robotics has been the goal of developing the ultimate universal soft robotic gripper. One that is capable of manipulating items of various shapes, sizes, thicknesses, textures, and weights. All the while still being lightweight and scalable in order to adapt to use cases. In this work, we report a soft gripper that enables delicate and precise grasps of fragile, deformable, and flexible objects but also excels in lifting heavy objects of up to 1617x its own body weight. The principle behind the soft gripper is based on extending the capabilities of electroadhesion soft grippers through the enhancement principles found in metamaterial adhesion cut and patterning. This design amplifies the adhesion and grasping payload in one direction while reducing the adhesion capabilities in the other direction. This counteracts the residual forces during peeling (a common problem with electroadhesive grippers), thus increasing its speed of release. In essence, we are able to tune the maximum strength and peeling speed, beyond the capabilities of previous electroadhesive grippers. We study the capabilities of the system through a wide range of experiments with single and multiple-fingered peel tests. We also demonstrate its modular and adaptive capabilities in the real-world with a two-finger gripper, by performing grasping tests of up to $5$ different multi-surfaced objects.

Cellular form and function emerge from complex mechanochemical systems within the cytoplasm. No systematic strategy currently exists to infer large-scale physical properties of a cell from its many molecular components. This is a significant obstacle to understanding biophysical processes such as cell adhesion and migration. Here, we develop a data-driven biophysical modeling approach to learn the mechanical behavior of adherent cells. We first train neural networks to predict forces generated by adherent cells from images of cytoskeletal proteins. Strikingly, experimental images of a single focal adhesion protein, such as zyxin, are sufficient to predict forces and generalize to unseen biological regimes. This protein field alone contains enough information to yield accurate predictions even if forces themselves are generated by many interacting proteins. We next develop two approaches - one explicitly constrained by physics, the other more agnostic - that help construct data-driven continuum models of cellular forces using this single focal adhesion field. Both strategies consistently reveal that cellular forces are encoded by two different length scales in adhesion protein distributions. Beyond adherent cell mechanics, our work serves as a case study for how to integrate neural networks in the construction of predictive phenomenological models in cell biology, even when little knowledge of the underlying microscopic mechanisms exist.