March 2015

Highlighted News

* Soft Robotics Workshop ICRA 2015

During ICRA2015 in Seattle, supported by IEEE’s Soft Robotics Technical Committee, the workshop “Soft Robotics: Actuation, Integration, and Applications – Blending Research Perspectives” will be organised.

Full-day workshop: May 30th, 2015

The emerging field of soft robotics holds great promise for bringing robots into all aspects of our daily lives, especially areas previously forbidden to rigid robots. This workshop will analyze how promises of soft robotics can be fulfilled, broadly benefiting society. To address translation of soft robotics research, the first part of the workshop will ponder actuators and use of novel materials and the second, integration and applications. The rise of soft actuators has caused the community to reevaluate motion generation from the ground up. New research directions emerge from novel materials: dielectric elastomers, carbon nanotube yarn and self-healing materials. New actuator technologies and fabrication approaches will bring about better force-speed operating points, variable impedance, more convenient form factors, and actuators without transmission mechanisms. Growth of academic soft robotics research naturally occasions greater technological adoption. Integrating sensing and control will make soft actuators amenable to emerging industries. Softness in robotics can manifest itself by virtual and material approaches. Applications of soft robotics include wearable robotics, surgical robots, micromanipulation, search and rescue, and others. The ultimate goal of the workshop is to point the way forward for “real world” soft robots by answering: “Where and how can soft robots outperform rigid robots?”

The program contains 14 invited speakers and 24 posters (with 3min on stage poster presentation). For participation, please register for the workshop through the general conference registration website.

Soft Robotics Week (April 13-17, 2015, Livorno, Italy)

The event is co-sponsored by the European FET-Open Coordination Action for Soft Robotics – RoboSoft and the Marie Curie Initial Training Network SMART-E, and will involve international experts across multiple fields in the scientific community of soft robotics, industrial leaders, young researchers and students, to discuss current research activities and applications and to face future frontiers for the field of soft robotics.
Major events are the the RoboSoft Plenary Meeting and the RoboSoft & SMART-E Joint School on “Applications and Frontiers of Soft Robotics”. For more information and registration visit this link. 

* The current issue of Soft Robotics is already online

* Job: Fully funded PostDoc position in Soft Robotics at The BioRobotics Institute of the Schola Superiore Sant’Anna (Pisa, Italy). Information and application available here.

* For other news and stories from the soft robotics community, you can read the RoboSoft Newsletter.

Published Journal Articles

* Soft sensing, artificial skin, electronic skin:

* Soft robot fabrication, growing robot:

* Soft actuator, flexible actuator, compliant actuator:

* Soft robot application:

* Morphological computation, morphological change, self-organization:

* Soft matter electronics, stretchable electronics:

Popular Articles