Highlighted News
* Recording of 3rd Soft Robotics debate is available: “Bioinspiration vs. Biohybrid”
* SOFA Symposium 2020 recordings area available via SOFA Youtube channel!
* A special issue on Design Optimization of Soft Robots is published in December issue of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine
* Call for paper: Small-Scale Robotics inside the Human Body in IEEE Transactions on Robotics.
Deadline for paper submission: June 1, 2021. The website is available here.
* February issue of Soft Robotics is already online
* New episodes of soft robotics podcast are available in Soundcloud and Spotify.
* Call for Submissions for the Workshop on “Healable Soft Robots” on Robosoft2021. Online workshop at April 12. Deadline for submitting contributing abstracts: March 26. Accepted abstracts are presented in a 10 minute long presentation. Workshop webpage can be found here. For further information, please contact seppe.terryn@vub.be or tg444@cam.ac.uk
* Postdoctoral Researcher/PhD Student Positions in Microsystems Technology, Uppsala University with the following topics: Printed Microsystems Technology with Soft Materials, Soft and Compliant Microsystems for Energy Efficient bodyNET, Mechanical Energy Module for a Soft and Compliant bodyNET. For more information, please contact klas.hjort@angstrom.uu.se
* 2nd SMART training event: Integration smart materials in soft robotics 16-18 March 2021 (online using ZOOM). The website can be found here.
New Videos
* Automated routing of muscle fibers for soft robots (Dec 2020)
* A soft robot that adapts to environments through shape change (Dec 2020)
* Science of soft robot PV (Jan 2021)
* Robust navigation of a soft growing robot by exploiting contact with the environment (Feb 2021)
Published Journal
* Related view and review:
- Wearable soft technologies for haptic sensing and feedback (Adv Mater, Dec 2020)
- Energy harvesting and storage with soft and stretchable materials (Adv Mater,Jan 2021)
* Soft arm, manipulation, grasping:
- Closed-structure compliant gripper with morphologically optimized multi-material fingertips for aerial grasping (IEEE Robot Autom Lett, Jan 2021)
* Soft locomotion, compliant locomotion:
- Fast and programmable locomotion of hydrogel-metal hybrids under light and magnetic fields (Sci Robot, Dec 2020)
- Squid-inspired robots perform swimmingly (Sci Robot, Jan 2021)
- Electronics-free pneumatic circuits for controlling soft-legged robots (Sci Robot, Feb 2021)
* Soft sensing, artificial skin, electronic skin:
- Heterogeneous sensing in a multifunctional soft sensor for human-robot interfaces (Sci Robot, Dec 2020)
- Self-powered electro-tactile system for virtual tactile experiences (Sci Adv, Jan 2021)
- Mechanics and morphological compensation strategy for trimmed soft whisker sensor (Soft Robot, Jan 2021)
- Tactile sensing biohybrid soft E-skin based on bioimpedance using aloe vera pulp tissues (Sci Rep, Feb 2021)
- Flexible Hall sensor made of laser-scribed graphene (npj Flex Electron, Feb 2021)
* Soft actuator, flexible actuator, compliant actuator:
- HFAM: Soft hydraulic filament artificial muscles for flexible robotic applications (IEEE Access, Dec 2020)
- Design and testing of a soft parallel robot based on pneumatic artificial muscles for wrist rehabilitation (Sci Rep, Jan 2021)
- Unfolding textile-based pneumatic actuators for wearable applications (Soft Robot, Jan 2021)
- Electro-pneumatic pumps for soft robotics (Sci Robot, Feb 2021)
- A versatile pneumatic actuator based on scissor nechanisms: Design, modeling, and experiments (IEEE Robot Autom Lett, Feb 2021)
* Soft robot application:
- Soft robots for ocean exploration and offshore operations: A perspective (Soft Robot, Jan 2021)
- Textile technology for soft robotic and autonomous garments (Adv Funct Mater, Dec 2020)
- Investigating the effects of strapping pressure on human-robot interface dynamics using a soft robotic cuff (IEEE Trans Med Robot Bionics, Dec 2020)
* Soft robot fabrication, embodied intelligence, morphological computation, morphological change:
- Biomimetic impact protective supramolecular polymeric materials enabled by quadruple H-bonding (J Am Chem Soc, Dec 2020)
* Soft robot learning, modeling, control, state estimation:
- Adaptive control of soft robots based on an enhanced 3D augmented rigid robot matching (IEEE Control Syst Lett, Dec 2020)
- Kinematic modeling and control of variable curvature soft continuum robots (IEEE/ASME Trans Mechatronics, Jan 2021)
- Predictive uncertainty estimation using deep learning for soft robot multimodal sensing (IEEE Robot Autom Lett, Feb 2021)
Popular Articles
- Aquatic robot inspired by sea creatures walks, rolls, transports cargo (Eurekalert, Dec 2020)
- Engineers develop soft robotic gripper: Inspired by twining plants, it has a variety of possible applications (ScienceNews, Dec 2020)
- A robot arm toting a Venus flytrap can grab delicate objects (ScienceNews, Jan 2021)
- Flexible microtools for safer, more effective surgeries (AdvancedScienceNews, Jan 2021)
- Robotic News: What’s trending in February 2021 – Soft Skills (Robotshop, Feb 2021)
- Meet Catfish Charlie, the CIA’s robotic spy (IEEE Spectrum, Feb 2021)
- Soft legged robot uses pneumatic circuitry to walk like a turtle (IEEE Spectrum, Feb 2021)
- Soft underwater crawling robot inspired by brittle stars (Nanowerk, Feb 2021)