Organizers:
- Daniel J. Preston, Rice University
- Kaitlyn Becker, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Jie Yin, North Carolina State University
- Sheila Russo, Boston University
- Vanessa Sanchez, Rice University
- Wanliang Shan, Syracuse University
Description:
Soft robotics is a growing research area that attracts interest from the broad communities of materials, mechanics, sensors, robotics, dynamics, control, and computer science. Interdisciplinary work between these communities is creating soft and soft-rigid hybrid robots that are strategically compliant and adaptive when interacting with humans, obstacles, and challenging environments.
Topics of interest:
This symposium invites research on mechanics, design, modeling, manufacturing, actuation, sensing, and control of soft robots made of different soft actuating materials and structures at all scales. The purpose is to showcase recent advances, identify and challenge the limits of soft systems, and provide a collective outlook for future directions. Examples of the topics include (but are not limited to):
- Robotic matter: emerging soft actuating materials, e.g., silicones, hydrogels, liquid crystal polymers, shape memory polymers, magnetic elastomers, electro-active polymers, etc.
- Robotic structures and manufacturing: novel structures, e.g., architected materials, origami/kirigami, bistable/multistable structures, tensegrity, composites, etc.
- Robotic intelligence: physical intelligence and material intelligence for autonomy and intelligence through sensing, actuation, control, and machine learning.
- Robotic functionalities: artificial muscles, actuators, locomotion (jumping, swimming, crawling), manipulation, mechanical computation, etc.
Robotics for a better life: wearable soft robots, surgical soft robots, rehabilitation robots, robots for healthcare and medical applications.