ICRA 2022

Upcoming event

Robosoft 2021: Material Intelligence Workshop

12 leading researchers, 253 unique attendees, 499 total users, >100 attendees in each Panel

The role of soft, adaptive matter in Robotics is intensively growing with the increasing demand for compliant, intelligent, and collaborative robotic behavior. The development of intelligent material systems combining actuation, sensing, and computation has become one of the grand challenges for realizing this vision of next-generation soft robotics. Material intelligence, the concept of material-level acquisition and application of knowledge and skills, embodies a critical synergy of sensing, actuation, and computation with the potential to redefine our expectations of material behavior. However, this idea's advancement faces several challenges due to the technical breadth, complex implementation, and conceptual paradigm shift of material behavior it requires.  In addition, physical integration of these capabilities and concepts is inherently interdisciplinary, requiring input and developing a common language across numerous disciplines, including Materials Science, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Bioengineering, Architecture, and others. The workshop hosted "under one roof" the leading researchers in the fields of soft-material actuation, sensing, and computation and created a dialogue on state of the art, identified technical/conceptual barriers, and outlined key challenges and opportunities for Material Intelligence.

IeCAT 2020: Soft and Biohybrid Actuation Session

6 invited speakers, 154 unique attendees from 35 countries worldwide

The first online event fully dedicated to soft and biohybrid actuation. Six leading researchers in the field of Soft Actuation gave invited talks, followed by q&a sessions and discussion. The talks covered the topics of material systems for soft actuation, using biological matter for soft biohybrid actuation, mimicking plant behavior in the design of soft synthetic actuators, organic chemistry of polymer-based soft actuators, combining multifunctional materials and design in soft robots, and computer simulation of soft materials for the design of soft actuators.