Jie Zhao

Harbin Institute of Technology | HIT · National Key Lab of Robotics and Systems

Current teleoperated robotic systems for retinal surgery cannot effectively control subtle tool-to-tissue interaction forces. This limitation may lead to patient injury caused by the surgeon’s mistakes. To improve the safety of retinal surgery, this paper proposes a haptic shared control framework for teleoperation based on a force-constrained supe...

Micro/nano robots have exhibited excellent application potential in the biomedical field, such as drug delivery, minimally invasive surgery, and bio-sensing. Furthermore, in order to achieve practical application, it is essential for swimming micro/nano robots to navigate towards specific targets or adjust their speed and morphology in complete env...

Robots are becoming an integral part of space facilities construction and maintenance, and may need to move to and from different work locations. Robotic arms that are widely employed, which are mounted on fixed bases, have difficulty coping with increasingly complex missions. The challenge discussed in this paper is the problem of the efficient lo...

This paper presents a control method for the coordinated motion of a mobile self-reconfigurable robotic system. By utilizing a virtual rigid framework, the system ensures that its configuration remains stable and intact, while enabling modular units to collaboratively track the required trajectory and velocity for mobile tasks. The proposed method...

Enabling a robot to learn skills from a human and adapt to different task scenarios will enable the use of robots in manufacturing to improve efficiency. Movement Primitives (MPs) are prominent tools for encoding skills. This paper investigates how to learn MPs from a small number of human demonstrations and adapt to different task constraints, inc...

Previous research has shown that load-bearing with elastic suspension backpacks improves human biomechanics and reduces human energy expenditure. Constant-force suspension backpacks (CFSB) with zero stiffness were developed to minimize the inertial force of loads. However, there is a mismatch between the load and the constant force mechanism due to...

The paper presents an angular acceleration planning method for joint space of manipulator to achieve real-time tracking tasks under joint constraint. To improve the performance of the algorithm and ensure the joint limit, the proposed method establishes a Second-order System with Variable Impedance (SSVI). The Second-order System is introduced in t...

Epiretinal membrane peel surgery requires the surgeon to perform precise operation on delicate tissue within the narrow space of the eye, which is considered as one of the most technically demanding procedures. Using surgical robots to assist surgeons in performing operations is a recognized development direction. The automatic microforceps, as a d...

Droplet manipulation technologies with surface acoustic waves attract significant attention for applications in fluid handling and bioanalysis. However, existing technologies face challenges in automation, precision, and functional integration, limiting broader applications. In this work, a highly integrated droplet‐sensing acoustofluidic tweezer i...

A mobile manipulator is capable of traversing a vast area while performing manipulation tasks in confined spaces. However, the high degree of freedom presents a challenge for path planning. In this paper, a hybrid sampling-based path planning method is proposed for mobile manipulators performing pick and place tasks in confined spaces. This method...

This article introduces a novel perspective on designing a stepping controller for bipedal robots. Typically, designing a state-feedback controller to stabilize a bipedal robot to a periodic orbit of step-to-step (S2S) dynamics based on a reduced-order model (ROM) can achieve stable walking. However, the model discrepancies between the ROM and the...

In this article, a dynamics observation model is proposed to obtain the information of the pose of a moving object and its higher order motion, which is one of the fundamental tasks in the field of target recognition. First, an object data model based on sparse feature line segments is constructed. Second, a dynamics observation model inspired by r...

This study proposes a pose and path planning method based on direction fields, addressing challenges in industrial robot surface machining. These challenges include limited machining accuracy and difficult path planning arising from the robot's low stiffness and high nonlinearity between joint and operational spaces. The method consists of two key...

Virtual reality (VR) technology revitalises rehabilitation training by creating rich, interactive virtual rehabilitation scenes and tasks that deeply engage patients. Robotics with immersive VR environments have the potential to significantly enhance the sense of immersion for patients during training. This paper proposes a rehabilitation robot sys...

Background With the increasing demand for balance disorder treatment, rehabilitation training robots are continuously evolving and advancing. Lower-limb end-effector rehabilitation robots can perform human-like gait movements and provide assistance to help patients complete rehabilitation training. The degree of realism in the somatosensory experie...

In low-illumination environments, visible light images significantly degrade, and the simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) system based on visible cameras fails. In contrast, thermal sensors are not affected by scene lighting conditions and have become a promising alternative. However, due to the problems of low contrast, high noise, and da...

The simultaneous achievement of high strength and precision in the fabrication of titanium alloy thin-walled components is a long-standing issue. This work proposes a novel integrated forming process, named Hot Forming with In-situ Stress Relaxation-Aging (short for HF-ISRA) to solve the special issue. In contrast to usual isothermal forming, the f...

The polar regions have typical representative characteristics of the Earth's environmental background, and conducting scientific exploration here is of great significance. Although a large number of polar robots have been designed and applied, efficient and pollution-free mobile operations still face challenges. A polar robot that achieves efficien...

Modular self-reconfigurable robots (MSRRs) have significantly progressed in hardware and algorithm development. However, they are generally used in terrestrial environments, leaving broad scenarios to be explored and benefited. This paper presents a novel amphibious self-reconfigurable robot (ASRR) that combines the flexibility of modular robots wi...

In imitation learning, it is often assumed the demonstration data are optimal, even though they are imperfect in practice. The imperfect demonstrations result from expert errors, large-scale demonstration data, and the non-convexity of the solution space of the task. In this paper, we propose a new ranking-based Generative Adversarial Imitation Lea...

Human–robot physical interaction in shared object manipulation can fully leverage the strengths of both humans and collaborative robots, achieving better interaction outcomes. However, in typical physical interactions, the inertia parameters of the object are either assumed to be known or ignored, simplifying the interaction to be directly between...

Crawling robots are the focus of intelligent inspection research, and the main feature of this type of robot is the flexibility of in-plane attitude adjustment. The crawling robot HIT_Spibot is a new type of steam generator heat transfer tube inspection robot with a unique mobility capability different from traditional quadrupedal robots. This pape...

A new configuration of a 9-degree-of-freedom (DOF) robot has been designed to address the prevalence of balance disorders in patients and the increasing demand for exercise rehabilitation training. This lower-limb end rehabilitation robot can assist patients with repetitive movements to stimulate and rebuild their nervous system and improve their p...

Accurate online estimation of the payload parameters benefits robot control. In the existing approaches, however, on the one hand, only the linear friction model was used for online payload identification, which reduced the online estimation accuracy. On the other hand, the estimation models contain much noise because of using actual joint trajecto...

Retinal surgery requires enclosed spatial constraints to improve the safety and success of the surgery. Herein, a shared control method is proposed for master–slave robot systems, utilizing tubular guidance constraints based on a novel potential field function to optimize the commands of the surgeon. Within the tube, attractive constraints intensif...

Crawling robots are the focus of intelligent inspection research, and the main feature of this type of robot is the flexibility of in-plane attitude adjustment. The crawling robot HIT_Spibot is a new type of steam generator heat transfer tube inspection robot with a unique mobility capability different from traditional quadrupedal robots. This pape...

The stress relaxation with synchronous ageing of TA15 titanium alloy was studied under a plastic pre-loading condition. The evolutions of microstructure and room temperature properties were characterized. Results show that the stress can be eliminated by 85 %, and the ultimate tensile strength can be increased by 5 % compared to the as-received she...

Purpose Compared to quad-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the tilting dual-rotor UAV is more prone to instability during exercises and disturbances. The purpose of this paper is using an active balance tail to enhance the hovering stability and motion smoothness of tilting dual-rotor UAV. Design/methodology/approach A balance tail is proposed...

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) retinal layer segmentation is a critical procedure of the modern ophthalmic process, which can be used for diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as diabetic macular edema (DME) and multiple sclerosis (MS). Due to the difficulties of low OCT image quality, highly similar retinal interlayer morphology, and the un...

Vibration is a common strategy for aquatic organisms to achieve their life activities, especially at the air–water interface. For the locomotion of small creatures, the organs with plate features are often used on water surfaces, which inspires relevant studies about using thin plates for robot propulsions. However, the influence of the general def...

One‐dimensional thrust vectoring turbojet vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft have attracted research attention due to their high thrust‐to‐weight ratios and their solution for the slow speed response of turbojet engines. However, there are some uncertainties and physical limitations in their systems, such as external disturbances, unknown...

This paper presents a complete planner and controller scheme to achieve balance and walking for a biped robot, which does not need to distinguish the robot’s dynamic model parameters. The high-level planner utilizes model predictive control to optimize both the foothold location and step duration based on the Divergent Component of Motion (DCM) mod...

In nature, gliding birds frequently execute intricate flight maneuvers such as aerial somersaults, perched landings, and swift descents, enabling them to navigate obstacles or hunt prey. It is evident that birds rely on different wing–tail configurations to accomplish a wide range of aerial maneuvers. For traditional fixed‐wing unmanned aerial vehi...

Modular robots have unique advantages in handling faults and improving their robustness due to their self‐reconfiguration capacity and homogeneous interchangeability. When locked joint failure occurs in modular robots, the distribution of the failed modules will affect the manipulation capacity of the robot. In this article, a novel self‐reconfigur...

Somatic design is crucial for soft grippers to emulate the embodied intelligence of their biological counterparts, due to the blurry boundaries among material, structure and function. There are five critical parts in somatic design, including morphology, material, fabrication, actuation, and variable stiffness. The strong nonlinear coupling among t...

Control design for the nonlinear cascaded system is challenging due to its complicated system dynamics and system uncertainty, both of which can be considered some kind of system nonlinearity. In this paper, we propose a novel nonlinearity approximation scheme with a simplified structure, where the system nonlinearity is approximated by a steady co...

This article applies high-order differential estimation to the motion planning of humanoid robots for the first time. A multiobjective optimization model and the corresponding optimal policy are designed from the perspective of solving time-varying linear equations. This method can avoid the calculation of the Jacobian matrix pseudo-inverse and its...

Existing model-based collision detection methods rely on accurate torque dynamic parameters identified using measured joint torques. However, for robots lacking joint torque sensors, only joint currents can be measured, and joint torques must be estimated through the linear relationship between joint currents and joint torque constants. This way ca...

The Wearable Robotic Limb (WRL) is a type of robotic arm worn on the human body, aiming to enhance the wearer’s operational capabilities. However, proposing additional methods to control and perceive the WRL when human limbs are heavily occupied with primary tasks presents a challenge. Existing interactive methods, such as voice, gaze, and electrom...

Currently, cables are manually installed in aircraft manufacturing scenarios. The utilization of robots in cable assemblies can enhance efficiency and ensure quality, presenting great promise for the future. However, the assembly process must control the shape of the cables, which is a significant challenge for robots. On the one hand, cables have...

In the human–robot collaboration system, the high-precision distortion correction of the camera as an important sensor is a crucial prerequisite for accomplishing the task. The traditional correction process is to calculate the lens distortion with the camera model parameters or separately from the camera model. However, in the optimization process...

Mechanisms that balance wide range of motion(ROM) with increased stiffness are gradually gaining attention in robotic applications. This letter proposed kinematic methods for the spatial interlocking 3-UU mechanism based on Lie Group, which consists of a fixed base and a moving platform connected by three serial limbs. A previous mathematical mobil...

Supernumerary robotic limbs (SRLs) are a novel type of wearable robot used as the third limb to assist the wearer to perform operations that are difficult or impossible for human hands. Although SRLs can compensate for and enhance human physiological abilities, the unpredictable disturbances caused by human movements significantly affect the coordi...

During the forming-reaction integrated process of NiAl alloy thin-walled components, Ni/Al laminates exhibit a complicated deformation behavior. In the present study, a physical-based constitutive model for the preparation of an Ni/Al laminate by vacuum hot-pressing was developed, with consideration of the load-bearing effect and microcracks in the...

Predicting human stiffness, especially at the distal end of the human arm, holds significant potential for various applications. It facilitates the realization of humanoid stiffness regulation in robots, improves the adaptability and human-likeness of interactive robots, and addresses critical issues in human control of medical assistive robots. Re...

Efficient object handover between humans and robots holds significant importance within collaborative manufacturing environments. Enhancing the efficacy of human–robot handovers involves enabling robots to comprehend and foresee human handover intentions. This article introduces human‐teaching–robot‐learning‐prediction framework, allowing robots to...

Humans use tools to complete impact-aware tasks such as hammering a nail or playing tennis. The postures adopted to use these tools can significantly influence the performance of these tasks, where the force or velocity of the hand holding a tool plays a crucial role. The underlying motion planning challenge consists of grabbing the tool in prepara...

An untethered ultrasonic robot (U2sonobot) operating in resonant vibration is developed by integrating dual transducers, an onboard circuit, and a battery. Here, the longitudinal and bending vibrations lead to the out-of-phase swing motion and the alternating acceleration, respectively; these imitate the rotatory galloping gait in terms of the driv...

The field of soft manipulators requires a more promising solution, including efficient structures and controllers. This paper presents a novel cable–pneumatic hybrid-driven tapered soft manipulator (TSM) design and control scheme to enhance the performance in actual tasks. This paper is the first to present the design with a Bowden tube as a drivin...

In practical applications, mobile robots often return to the same place from opposite directions at different times, resulting in opposite viewpoints and appearance changes. In this intricate environment, the successful generation of visual place recognition (VPR) is crucial for tasks such as simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), geo-locali...

Supernumerary robotic limbs (SRLs) are wearable robots that serve as extra limbs, assisting wearers in task completion. The strong coupling between SRLs and wearers results in wearer movements influencing SRLs' actions and the forces exerted on mechanisms during operations. The wearer's movements lead to uncertain and uncontrollable base movements,...

NiAl alloy sheet was successfully prepared using current-assisted sintering, thus verifying the possibility of preparing a NiAl thin-wall component by current-assisted sintering and foil/foil reaction synthesis. Ni/Al laminated sheets were obtained by annealing at 550 °C at 5 MPa for 0.5 h; uniform NiAl alloy sheets were fabricated by annealing at...

The dual-transducer support structure discussed has the advantages of a simple structure and low cost, as well as allowing for the use of both Traveling-Wave (TW) and Standing-Wave (SW) acoustic transportation, supporting its use in pharmaceutical and biochemical analysis, for example. By adjusting the distance between the vibrating plate and the r...

In this study, the conventional virtual chain method is refined and a 4‐degrees‐of‐freedom (DOF) parallel bipedal mechanism (PBM) for walking robots is presented. The proposed design has the advantages of low inertia, high load‐to‐weight ratio, and impact resistance. First, to solve the redundant motion‐transmission problem, a refined virtual chain...

Supernumerary robotic limbs (SRLs) are a new type of wearable robot that add artificial limbs to the human body to perform collaborative tasks. In contrast with exoskeletons, SRLs are kinematically independent of human limbs, allowing the wearer to overcome the limitations of human physiological ability, such as realizing the expansion of space in...