Workshop RoboSoft 2018


FULL-DAY WORKSHOP
Venue: Grand Hotel Palazzo, Viale Italia, Livorno, Italy
24 April 2018

Barbara Mazzolai
Director
Center of Micro-BioRobotics (CMBR)
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT)
Viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34
56025 Pontedera (Pisa), Italy

Robert Shepherd
Professor
Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
The Organic Robotics Lab (ORL)
Cornell University
553 Upson Hall, Ithaca, NY
ABSTRACT
The study and the extraction of biological key principles, and their translation in design guidelines for a new generation of robots and technological solutions have been widely adopted in the biomimetics and bionics fields.
Biologically inspired approaches have traditionally been widely adopted in robotics, as well. Robots that implement solutions inspired by nature show abilities that permit adaptive, flexible interactions with unpredictable environments. Consequently, in the goal to mimic living beings, the different components of an artificial system have to be designed from models of the reference biological systems, in an integrated way, making explicit the general design principles underlying the embodiment. The next generation of robots will be “soft”, because this better allows the interaction with the environment, mediated by the body, as in natural systems. Advances in “soft technology” will lead to a quantum leap in intelligent robotics.
With this workshop, we wish to contribute to the discussion on the development of bioinspired soft robots, not just as robotic systems implementing solutions inspired by nature, but as platforms for biological studies: building a bioinspired robot allows thoroughly understanding the biomechanics, control, perception, and behavior of the reference living system. Mimicking animals, or plants and even microorganisms, requires deep investigation of new materials, bio-mechanisms, sensors, actuators, energy solutions, and control schemes and can lead to breakthrough advances in robotics technologies.
DESCRIPTION
This workshop aims at gathering robotics, biology, biophysics, and biomechanics researchers among the key actors of bioinspired soft robotics worldwide, with the objectives of:
- stimulating a fruitful and attractive discussion on this emerging scientific area, not only restricted to the robotics community, but expanded to include interaction with the biology, materials science, biophysics communities;
- providing an authoritative overview of recent advancements in studying features (e.g., materials, behaviors, mechanisms, etc.) of selected living systems belonging to Animalia, Plantae, Bacteria Kingdoms and their related counterparts in soft robotics;
- creating an occasion in which scientists and roboticists can offer different perspectives and viewpoints in developing a new class of soft robots, which exhibit different performance compared with today's robots, in terms of materials, fabrication technologies, machine and natural intelligence, sensors and actuators;
- discussing the role of dimensional scale, interaction with environment, morphology, materials hierarchical organization, and other features relevant to define new emerging abilities of soft robots;
- outlining the current opportunities and challenges of bioinspired robotics.
PLAN TO ENCOURAGE INTERACTION AMONG PARTICIPANTS
The workshop will include a panel discussion open to all the attendees. The workshop speakers and additional experts will animate the discussion, by briefly presenting key issues that deserve further analysis and interdisciplinary debate.
The proposed workshop is intended for the robotics researchers and the scientists who share this vision of bioinspired soft robotics, including the young students and researchers who are encouraged to enter this emerging and challenging field of research.
The novelty of the area and the multidisciplinary approach will stimulate creativity and interactions among participants, with the potentiality of a strong impact for different topics in engineering, ICT solutions, and basic science.
INVITED SPEAKERS
1 |
Bilge Baytekin |
Bilkent University |
Turkey |
2 |
Antonio De Simone |
SISSA |
Italy |
3 |
Peer Fischer |
Max Planck |
Germany |
4 |
Peter Fratzl |
Max Planck |
Germany |
5 |
Luca Gammaitoni |
University of Perugia |
Italy |
6 |
Daniel Goldman |
Georgia Institute of Technology |
USA |
7 |
José Halloy |
Université Denis Diderot |
France |
8 |
Wenqi Hu |
Max Planck |
Germany |
9 |
Mirko Kovac |
Imperial College |
England |
10 |
Rebecca Kramer |
Yale University |
USA |
11 |
Barbara Mazzolai |
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia |
Italy |
12 |
Yasmine Meroz |
Tel Aviv University |
Israel |
13 |
Paolo Milani |
University of Milan |
Italy |
14 |
Bradley Nelson |
ETH |
CH |
15 |
Kirstin Petersen |
Cornell University |
USA |
16 |
Nicola Pugno |
University of Trento |
Italy |
17 |
Arthur Seibel |
Hamburg University of Technology |
Germany |
18 |
Robert Shepherd |
Cornell University |
USA |
PROGRAM
FROM LIVING BEINGS TO ARTEFACTS: SOFT ROBOTS, MATERIALS, ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR, MOVEMENT, AND CONTROL IN ANIMALIA, PLANTAE, AND BACTERIA
TIME |
SPEAKER |
TOPICS |
09:00 – 09:10 |
Barbara Mazzolai & Robert Shepherd |
Welcome and introduction |
Animalia |
Title |
|
09:10 – 09:30 |
Robert Shepherd |
Optoelectronic Nervous Systems |
09:30 – 09:50 |
Daniel Goldman |
Slithering snake diffraction: the need for (and efforts toward) a softer snake robot |
09:50 – 10:10 |
Nicola Pugno |
Bio-inspired structural composites for robotics |
10:10 – 10:30 |
Arthur Seibel |
A Gecko-inspired Soft Robot |
10:30 – 11:00 |
coffee break |
|
11:00 – 11:20 |
Kirstin Petersen |
Minimalistic Soft Robots for Deployment in High Numbers |
11:20 – 11:40 |
Mirko Kovac |
Aerial BioRobotics: adaptive morphology for high-performance flight and surface interaction |
11:40 – 12:00 |
Rebecca Kramer |
Design of a Morphing Limb for a Turtle- and Tortoise-Inspired Amphibious Robot |
Plantae |
Title |
|
12:00 – 12:20 |
Barbara Mazzolai |
Plants inspire tomorrow's robots |
12:20 – 12:40 |
Peter Fratzl |
Heat-triggered and humidity-controlled shape change inspired from plant seed pods |
12:40 – 13:00 |
Yasmine Meroz |
A foundation for decision-making in plant tropisms |
13:00 – 14:00 |
Lunch & Discussion |
|
14:00 – 14:20 |
José Halloy |
The material base of robotics and AI in the light of sustainability |
14:20 – 14:40 |
Paolo Milani |
Metal-Polymer Nanocomposites for the Fabrication of Complex Systems for Soft Actuation and Flexible Electronics |
14:40 – 15:00 |
Bilge Baytekin |
Bioinspired Heliotropism and Nyctinasty for Soft Plant Robots |
Bacteria |
Title |
|
15:00 – 15:20 |
Wenqi Hu |
Shape-programmable Magnetic Soft Matter and Millirobots |
15:20 – 15:40 |
Antonio De Simone |
Flagellar motility and metaboly in Euglena gracilis: lessons on locomotion and shape control from a unicellular protest |
15:40 – 16:00 |
Bradley Nelson |
Soft Microrobotics and its Application in Medicine |
16:00 – 16:30 |
coffee break |
|
16:30 – 16:50 |
Peer Fisher |
Bio-mimicry and bio-inspired propulsion in tissue |
16:50 – 17:10 |
Luca Gammaitoni |
Biological cell as fuel source for powering micro robotic applications |
17:10 – 17:30 |
Concluding remarks and end of the workshop |
|
20:30 |
Social Dinner - by invitation only |