Highlighted News
* The first book dedicated on the foundations and trends of soft material robotics, including review of reviews, is already available on amazon.com, amazon.co.uk and amazon.co.jp
* The Workshop on Advanced Fabrication and Morphological Computation for Soft Robotics at IEEE ICRA was successfully organized. The book of abstracts can still be downloaded here.
* Soft robot “Anguis” competed in Robotart competition
* The CMU Soft Machines Lab is accepting applications for postdoctoral appointments in the areas of soft-matter robotics and shape programmable matter. Please send your CV, contact information for three references, and a one-page cover letter to cmajidi@andrew.cmu.edu
* PhD position is available in aquatic soft robotics at University of Southampton. For further enquires, please contact: nexuss@soton.ac.uk
* Funded PhD positions at Royal College of Art. Applicants with backgrounds in mechatronics, software, or engineering design to address challenges in soft robotics/ mobile robotics. Fur further enquiry, please contact: sina.sareh@rca.ac.uk
* Soft Robotics journal has a new impact factor of 8.649
* The latest issue of Soft Robotics journal is available (consists of eight articles)
New Videos
* Fluid electrodes for submersible robotics based on diaelectric elastomer actuators (April 2017)
* Meet the Paik Lab (May 2017)
* Soft sheet actuator generating travelling waves inspired by gastropod’s locomotion (June 2017)
* Two-level approach for solving the inverse kinematics of an extensible soft arm (June 2017)
Published Journal Articles
* Soft arm, manipulation, grasping:
- Controllable load sharing for soft adhesive interfaces on three-dimensional surfaces (PNAS, April 2017)
- Screw-based modeling of soft manipulators with tendon and fluidic actuation (J Mech Robot., May 2017)
- A wet-tolerant adhesive patch inspired by protuberances in suction cups of octopi (Nature, June 2017)
* Soft locomotion, compliant locomotion:
- Fast-moving soft electronic fish (Sci. Adv., April 2017)
- Serpentine locomotion through elastic energy release (J. R. Soc. Interface, May 2017)
- Propulsive performance of an under-actuated robotic ribbon fin (Bioinspir. Biomim., June 2017)
* Soft actuator, flexible actuator, compliant actuator:
- Polybenzoxazole nanofiber-reinforced moisture-responsive soft actuators (Sci. Rep., April 2017)
- Conduction electrohydrodynamics with mobile electrodes: A novel actuation system for untethered robots (Adv. Sci., May 2017)
- Flexible zinc–tin oxide thin film transistors operating at 1 kV for integrated switching of dielectric elastomer actuators arrays (Adv. Mater., June 2017)
* Soft robot application:
- A light-driven artificial flytrap (Nat. Commun., May 2017)
- Stretchable, twisted conductive microtubules for wearable computing, robotics, electronics, and healthcare (Sci. Rep., May 2017)
- Physical interface dynamics alter how robotic exosuits augment human movement: implications for optimizing wearable assistive devices (J Neuroeng. Rehabil., May 2017)
- Reducing the metabolic cost of running with a tethered soft exosuit (Science Robotics, May 2017)
* Soft robot fabrication, growing robot:
- Toward self-growing soft robots inspired by plant roots and based on additive manufacturing technologies (Soft Robotics, May 2017)
* Morphological computation, morphological change, self-organization:
- Effect of cell aspect ratio on swarming bacteria (Phys. Rev. Lett., April 2017)
- Introduction to the evolution of physical systems special issue (Artif. Life., May 2017)
- Evolutionary developmental robotics: Improving morphology and control of physical robots (Artif. Life., May 2017)
- Real-World evolution of robot morphologies: A proof of concept (Artif. Life., May 2017)
- Evolution of joint-level control for quadrupedal locomotion (Artif. Life., May 2017)
Popular Articles
- Electric and magnetic fields drive soft, flexible robots (IEEE Spectrum, April 2017)
- Fish-inspired robot leaves rivals in its wake (Nature Research Highlights, April 2017)
- Mass production of low-cost, flexible inkjet-printed electronics (KurzweilAI, April 2017)
- Robot, heal thyself (ASME.org, April 2017)
- Robotic caterpillar crawls ahead (ASME.org, May 2017)
- 3D-printed ‘bionic skin’ could give robots and prosthetics the sense of touch (KurzweilAI, May 2017)
- Finding the right morphology to simplify control for soft robotics (Robohub, May 2017)
- Nanogenerator gets more flexible and transparent (IEEE Spectrum, May 2017)
- New bioprinter makes it easier to fabricate 3D flesh and bone (IEEE Spectrum, May 2017)
- Soft robotic structures fold themselves up in hot water (IEEE Spectrum, May 2017)
- 3D-printed pneumatic quadruped robot adapts to rough terrain (IEEE Spectrum, May 2017)
- VR glove powered by soft robotics provides missing sense of touch (KurzweilAI, June 2017)
- Giving robots a sense of touch (MIT News, June 2017)
- Sticky gripper can lift flasks and tomatoes (Nature Research Highlights, June 2017)