Publications de Jun Shintake | EPFL Graph Search

Edible Soft Actuators based on Konjac Glucomannan for Underwater Operation

Dario Floreano, Jun Shintake, Ryo Kanno, Bokeon Kwak, Markéta Pankhurst

Soft robots are being increasingly developed and deployed for underwater applications such as exploration, monitoring, and rescue owing to their innate compliance, mechanical and chemical stability, and waterproof properties. However, they are still predom ...

2024

Fast-Response Variable-Stiffness Magnetic Catheters for Minimally Invasive Surgery

Dario Floreano, Jun Shintake, Yi Sun, Yegor Piskarev, Matteo Righi

In minimally invasive surgery, such as cardiac ablation, magnetically steered catheters made of variable-stiffness materials can enable higher dexterity and higher force application to human tissue. However, the long transition time between soft and rigid ...

2024

Towards edible robots and robotic food

Dario Floreano, Jun Shintake, Bokeon Kwak, Markéta Pankhurst

Edible robots and robotic food — edible systems that perceive, process and act upon stimulation — could open a new range of opportunities in health care, environmental management and the promotion of healthier eating habits. For example, they could enable ...

2024

A Soft Gripper with Granular Jamming and Electroadhesive Properties

Pierre-Etienne Bourban, Dario Floreano, Jun Shintake, Vivek Ramachandran, Yegor Piskarev

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the development of universal soft grippers that can handle objects of varying form factors (including flat objects), surface conditions (including moistened or oily objects), and mechanical properties ( ...

2023

A variable stiffness magnetic catheter made of a conductive shape memory polymer for minimally invasive surgery

Dario Floreano, Jun Shintake, Yegor Piskarev

A hollow variable stiffness thread including a flexible inner tube, a conductive shape memory polymer (CSMP) layer arranged around the inner tube forming a variable stiffness zone, a flexible encapsulation layer arranged around the CSMP layer, and a first ...

2023

A Variable Stiffness Magnetic Catheter Made of a Conductive Phase-Change Polymer for Minimally Invasive Surgery

Dario Floreano, Jun Shintake, Yegor Piskarev

Variable stiffness (VS) is an important feature that significantly enhances the dexterity of magnetic catheters used in minimally invasive surgeries. Existing magnetic catheters with VS consist of sensors, heaters, and tubular structures filled with low me ...

2022

Enhancement of Pressure-Sensitive Adhesive by CO2 Laser Treatment

Dario Floreano, Jianhang Yang, Jun Shintake, Vivek Ramachandran, Yegor Piskarev, Michael Dickey

Pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSAs) are polymeric films that can be adhered to and detached from surfaces without leaving residue. Researchers are looking to enhance the bond strength between PSAs and different substrates. It can be achieved by tuning PSA' ...

2022

Towards edible drones for rescue missions: design and flight of nutritional wings

Dario Floreano, Jun Shintake, Bokeon Kwak

Drones have shown to be useful aerial vehicles for unmanned transport missions such as food and medical supply delivery. This can be leveraged to deliver life-saving nutrition and medicine for people in emergency situations. However, commercial drones can ...

IEEE2022

Lighter and Stronger: Cofabricated Electrodes and Variable Stiffness Elements in Dielectric Actuators

Dario Floreano, Jun Shintake, Vivek Ramachandran, Yegor Piskarev, Michael Dickey

The inherent compliance of soft robots often makes it difficult for them to exert forces on surrounding surfaces or withstand mechanical loading. Controlled stiffness is a solution to empower soft robots with the ability to apply large forces on their envi ...

2020

Phase Changing Materials-Based Variable-Stiffness Tensegrity Structures

Dario Floreano, Jun Shintake, Davide Zappetti

Soft robots leverage deformable bodies to achieve different types of locomotion, improve transportability, and safely navigate cluttered environments. In this context, variable-stiffness structures provide soft robots with additional properties, such as th ...

2020

Stretchable electrohydrodynamic pump

Dario Floreano, Herbert Shea, Jun Shintake, Vito Cacucciolo

A stretchable pump for providing electrohydrodynamic pumping of a ionisable fluid, said soft pump comprising a stretchable polymeric structure comprising at least one elongated channel, therein; and a first set of at least two electrodes operatively dispos ...

2020

Bio-Inspired Tensegrity Fish Robot

Dario Floreano, Jun Shintake, Timothée John Martin Peter, Davide Zappetti, Yusuke Ikemoto

This paper presents a method to create fish-like robots with tensegrity systems and describes a prototype modeled on the body shape of the rainbow trout with a length of 400 mm and a mass of 102 g that is driven by a waterproof servomotor. The structure of ...

IEEE2020

Delicate yet strong: characterizing the electro-adhesion lifting force with a soft gripper

Herbert Shea, Jun Shintake, Vito Cacucciolo

Compliant grippers are one of the most promising soft robotic devices for industrial tasks. Soft grippers dramatically simplify grasping control because the gripper automatically conforms to the object's shape. A common limitation of soft structures is tha ...

IEEE2019

Stretchable pumps for soft machines

Dario Floreano, Herbert Shea, Jun Shintake, Vito Cacucciolo, Yu Kuwajima

Machines made of soft materials bridge life sciences and engineering. Advances in soft materials have led to skin-like sensors and muscle-like actuators for soft robots and wearable devices. Flexible or stretchable counterparts of most key mechatronic comp ...

2019

Variable stiffness strip with strain sensing for wearable robotics

Dario Floreano, Carine Rognon, Jun Shintake, Stefano Mintchev, Alice Tonazzini, Vivek Ramachandran

Variable stiffness technologies help to solve the conflicting requirements of strength, comfort, and safety in soft exoskeletons. Here, we propose a modular variable stiffness strip based on layer jamming as a mechanical solution to constrain users' degree ...

2018

All‐Fabric Wearable Electroadhesive Clutch

Dario Floreano, Jun Shintake, Vivek Ramachandran

A lightweight, textile fabricated, haptic device consisting of an electrostatic adhesive clutch is introduced, which can constrain body movement when activated at low power (≈1 mW). The clutch electrodes are composite structures, prepared by coating copper ...

Wiley2018

Bioinspired dual-stiffness origami

Dario Floreano, Jun Shintake, Stefano Mintchev

Origami manufacturing has led to considerable advances in the field of foldable structures with innovative applications in robotics, aerospace, and metamaterials. However, existing origami are either load-bearing structures that are prone to tear and fail ...

2018

Soft Robotic Grippers

Dario Floreano, Herbert Shea, Jun Shintake, Vito Cacucciolo

Advances in soft robotics, materials science, and stretchable electronics have enabled rapid progress in soft grippers. Here, a critical overview of soft robotic grippers is presented, covering different material sets, physical principles, and device archi ...

Wiley2018

Ultra-stretchable strain sensors using carbon black-filled elastomer composites and comparison of capacitive versus resistive sensors

Dario Floreano, Jun Shintake, Seunghee Jeong, Yegor Piskarev

Wiley2018

Soft Biomimetic Fish Robot Made of Dielectric Elastomer Actuators

Dario Floreano, Herbert Shea, Jun Shintake, Vito Cacucciolo

This article presents the design, fabrication, and characterization of a soft biomimetic robotic fish based on dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) that swims by body and/or caudal fin (BCF) propulsion. BCF is a promising locomotion mechanism that potenti ...

2018