San Diego, CA USA
April 14-17, 2024
7th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Soft Robotics
One of the key challenges in soft robotics is to effectively achieve and control stiffness. Soft robots must be compliant for enhanced dexterity and safe interaction with the environment, but stiffness is essential for force transmission when needed. The design of a soft robot involves finding a balance between being stiff enough to exert significant forces for task performance and precision, and being compliant enough to adapt to the environment. Various techniques have been used to achieve stiffness variation in soft robots, including vacuum-induced jamming structures, shape memory materials, low melting point materials, electro-magnetorheological materials, electroactive polymers, and flexible fluidic actuators. These methods can be compared based on their stiffening and de-stiffening rates, stiffening modes, and the amount of stiffness variation. This workshop aims to bring together experts to present recent advances in stiffening techniques in the field of soft robotics. Distinguished experts from academia will give seminars on their developed techniques and engage in critical discussions on their prerequisites, performance, and limitations. The workshop will include networking events to increase interaction among participants.
This workshop will focus on the mechanisms used for stiffening and de-stiffening in soft robotic applications. Our comprehensive half-day program will begin with a welcome. Following the opening and introductory session, presentations will cover various concepts related to variable stiffness mechanisms in soft robotics.
Participants in this workshop will gain insight into various stiffening mechanisms, understanding their importance, advantages and disadvantages in robotic applications. They will also learn about state-of-the-art examples of variable stiffness and real-world applications of stiffening mechanisms. Most importantly, attendees will engage in discussions with the speakers, addressing questions to explore grand challenges.
Variable stiffening mechanisms, Jamming mechanisms, Low melting point materials, Electroactive polymers, Electro-magnetorheological materials, Shape memory materials, Flexible fluidic actuators, Real-time stiffening mechanisms, Control strategies for stiffening mechanisms.
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Boston University
BioRobotics Institute
Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna
Robotics and Intelligent Systems
ETH Zurich
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
Yale University
School of Engineering and Materials Science
Queen Mary University of London
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Boğaziçi University
| Name | Affiliation | Country | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tommaso Ranzani | Department of Mechanical Engineering, Boston University | USA | [1] |
| Niccolo Pagliarani | BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna | Italy | [2] |
| Rebecca Kramer- Bottiglio | Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Yale University | USA | [3] |
| Buse Aktas | Robotics and Intelligent Systems, ETH Zurich | Switzerland | [4] |
| Kaspar Althoefer | School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London | UK | [5] |
| Taylan Atakuru, Evren Samur | Department of Mechanical Engineering, Boğaziçi University | Turkey | [6,7] |
| Time | Speaker | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| 13:30-13:50 | Evren Samur | Icebreaker/Intro |
| 13:50-14:15 | Kaspar Althoefer | From stiff to floppy: Stiffening approaches for fluidically actuated soft robots |
| 14:15-14:40 | Taylan Atakuru, Evren Samur | Jamming of Magnetorheological Elastomers |
| 14:40-15:05 | Tommaso Ranzani | Real-time electronically controllable stiffness modulation for soft robotics |
| 15:05-15:30 | Buse Aktas | Multidimensional Stiffness Tunability for Robotic Structures through Jamming |
| 15:30-16:00 | – | Coffee break/Networking |
| 16:00-16:25 | Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio | The role of rigidity in soft morphing robots |
| 16:25-16:50 | Niccolo Pagliarani | Empowering soft robots through Jamming transition-based system |
| 16:50-17:30 | – | Networking |
Boğaziçi University, Department of Mechanical Engineering
evren.samur@bogazici.edu.tr
Boğaziçi University, Department of Mechanical Engineering
taylanatakuru@gmail.com
Boğaziçi University, Department of Mechanical Engineering
gunay.zungor@bogazici.edu.tr
The workshop is partially sponsored by the Robotics & AI Laboratories (ROYAL) project at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey, and Boğaziçi University Research Fund, grant number 19782.
We believe that there have been some recent advances [1-7] in the area of stiffening methods for soft robotics, and a workshop dedicated to this topic would be a great opportunity to learn more about them and identify the challenges that further work should address.