Dutch Soft Robotics Symposium 2023
Keynote Speakers
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Barbara Mazzolai
Istituto Italiano di Technologia
Barbara Mazzolai is Associate Director for Robotics and Director of the Bioinspired Soft Robotics Laboratory... Read more
Barbara Mazzolai is Associate Director for Robotics and Director of the Bioinspired Soft Robotics Laboratory at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Genoa. From February 2011 to March 2021, she was the Director of the IIT Center for Micro-BioRobotics (CMBR). She graduated in Biology (with Honours) at the University of Pisa, Italy, and received her Ph.D. in Microsystems Engineering from the University of Rome Tor Vergata. She was Deputy Director for the Supervision and Organization of the IIT Centers Network from July 2012 to 2017. From January to July 2017, she was Visiting Faculty at Aerial Robotics Lab, Department of Aeronautics, of Imperial College of London. She is member of the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) of the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (Tübingen and Stuttgart, Germany); member of the SAB of the Max Planck Queensland Centre (MPQC) for the Materials Science of Extracellular Matrices; and member of the Advisory Committee of the Cluster on Living Adaptive and Energy-autonomous Materials Systems - livMatS (Freiburg, Germany). Her research activity is in the field of bioinspired soft robotics, combining biology and engineering for both advancing technological innovation and scientific knowledge. In this field, she has been the Coordinator of several EU-funded projects, such as PLANTOID, GrowBot and I-SEED. In May 2021, she has started the European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant “I-Wood”, Forest Intelligence: robotic networks inspired by the Wood Wide Web. She has received various awards for her work, including the Marisa Bellisario Award and the Medal of the Italian Senate. She is author and co-author of more than 260 papers appeared in international journals, books, and conference proceedings. In 2019, she published her book “La Natura Geniale” and in 2021 “Il futuro raccontato dalle piante” (ed. Longanesi).
Embracing Complexity for Enduring and Adaptive, Organic Robots via Autonomous Materials
Robert Shepherd
Cornell University
Rob Shepherd is an associate professor at Cornell University in the Sibley School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering. Read more...
Rob Shepherd is an associate professor at Cornell University in the Sibley School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering. He received his B.S. (Material Science & Engineering), Ph.D. (Material Science & Engineering), and M.B.A. from the University of Illinois in Material Science & Engineering. At Cornell, he runs the Organic Robotics Lab (ORL: http://orl.mae.cornell.edu), which focuses on using methods of invention, including bioinspired design approaches, in combination with material science to improve machine function and autonomy. We rely on new and old synthetic approaches for soft material composites that create new design opportunities in the field of robotics. Our research spans three primary areas: bioinspired robotics, advanced manufacturing, and human-robot interactions. He is the recipient of an Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award, an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, is a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors, and his lab’s work has been featured in popular media outlets such as the BBC, Discovery Channel, and PBS’s NOVA documentary series. He is an advisor to the American Bionics Project (americanbionics.org) which aims to make wheelchairs obsolete. He is also the co-founder of the Organic Robotics Corporation, which aims to digitally record the tactile interactions of humans and machines with their environment.
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Fumiya Iida
University of Cambridge
Fumiya Iida is a professor of robotics at the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge. Read more
Fumiya Iida is a professor of robotics at the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge. He received his bachelor and master degrees in mechanical engineering at Tokyo University of Science (Japan, 1999), and Dr. sc. nat. in Informatics at University of Zurich (2006). In 2004 and 2005, he was also engaged in biomechanics research of human locomotion at Locomotion Laboratory, University of Jena (Germany). From 2006 to 2009, he worked as a postdoctoral associate at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology in USA. In 2006, he was awarded the Fellowship for Prospective Researchers from the Swiss National Science Foundation, and in 2009, he was appointed as a Swiss National Science Foundation Professor for bio-inspired robotics at ETH Zurich. His research interests include biologically inspired robotics, embodied artificial intelligence, and biomechanics, and he has been involved in a number of research projects related to dynamic legged locomotion, navigation of autonomous robots, and human-machine interactions. He has so far published over forty publications in major robotics journals and conferences, and edited two books. Currently he serves on the editorial board of the Soft Robotics Journal, Frontiers in Robotics and AI (Bio-Inspired Robotics Section), and as a program committee member for international conferences and workshops. In addition, he has organized a few seminal meetings such as the International Conference of Embodied Intelligence, RoboSoft, and TAROS.
Short Talks
Soft Fingertips for Tactile-driven
Robotics
Michaël Wiertlewski
Delft University of Technology
Michaël Wiertlewski is Assistant Professor at the Cognitive Robotics Department of the TU Delft in the Netherlands. Read more
Michaël Wiertlewski is Assistant Professor at the Cognitive Robotics Department of the TU Delft in the Netherlands. He obtained his Ph.D. degree at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie under the auspices of the Laboratoire d'Intégration des Systèmes et des Technologies of the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA-LIST) in Fontenay-aux-Roses, France. In 2012, he joined the Neuroscience and Robotics (NxR) lab at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, USA, where he studied the physics of ultrasonic friction-modulation. From 2015 to 2019 he was CNRS Chargé de Recherche at Aix-Marseille university. He received the Early Career Award from the Technical Committee on Haptics in 2017. His main research interests include the design of tactile interfaces and sensors, the physics of the skin/surface interaction and tactile perception of human and robots.
Soft Robotics via Integrated Additive Manufacturing
Ali Sadeghi
University of Twente
Ali Sadeghi is an assistant professor at the University of Twente, where he directs the Soft Robotics Lab. Read more
Ali Sadeghi is an assistant professor at the University of Twente, where he directs the Soft Robotics Lab. He received his Ph.D. degree in 2013 (cum laude) in the field of Micro-BioRobotics from Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Italy. After his Ph.D., he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Bioinspired Soft Robotics group of the Italian Institute of Technology (iit) where his research was focused on the design and manufacturing of soft robots inspired by biological models such as plants, sea urchins, and octopuses. Inspired by plant movements, he pioneered the new concept of “Growing Robots” particularly by incorporating additive manufacturing technology as part of the robot structure. Ali’s research focuses on assembly integrated additive manufacturing of fiber-reinforced soft robots, using new types of materials, sensing, and actuation techniques.
Soft Bio-Inspired Tissue Handling in Healthcare
Aimée Sakes
Delft University of Technology
Dr. ir. Aimée Sakes is an assistant professor at the Biomedical Engineering Department (BMechE – BITE group) ... Read more
Dr. ir. Aimée Sakes is an assistant professor at the Biomedical Engineering Department (BMechE – BITE group) of the faculty Mechanical, Maritime & Materials Engineering (3mE) at TUD, where she earned both her MSc and PhD titles with honors (2013, 2017). Her research focuses on the development of bio-inspired soft instrumentation based on shooting and transport mechanisms found in nature, such as the chameleon tongue, ovipositors of parasitic wasps, and snake locomotion. Her work has resulted in a range of novel prototypes, among which a series of innovative impulse catheters, the world’s first steerable 3D-printed bipolar electrosurgical grasper, and a new type of transport mechanism inspired by the ovipositor (egg-laying needle) of parasitic wasps (patent pending). For her work, she has been awarded the best PhD thesis on a cardiovascular topic in 2019, best female PhD Cum Laude of the TUD in 2018, the journal on Cardio-Vascular Engineering and Technology (CVET) Most Downloaded Article Award in 2017, and the Medical Delta Young Talent – Scientist Award in 2017
Invertebrate Adhesion: Towards Bio-inspired Soft Adhesives
Guillermo Amador
Wageningen University
Guillermo J Amador is an assistant professor in the Experimental Zoology group at Wageningen University and Research. Read more
Guillermo J Amador is an assistant professor in the Experimental Zoology group at Wageningen University and Research. He obtained his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA in 2015, where his thesis, titled How Insects Stay Clean, was awarded Best PhD Thesis award by the Sigma Xi organization. After his PhD, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Physical Intelligence group at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, Germany, and then a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Leading Fellow in the departments of Process & Energy and Bionanoscience at TU Delft. Guillermo is an experimentalist interested in interfacial phenomena within the context of biology, including how animals stick to surfaces when climbing or hunting. Through his work, he will shed light on the physical mechanisms dictating biological form and its evolution, as well as motivate and develop bio-inspired solutions for controlled locomotion and mass transfer.
Soft Robotics for Haptic Interactions
Irene Kuling
Eindhoven University of Technology
Irene Kuling is an assistant professor in the Dynamics and Control group within the department of ... Read more
Irene Kuling is an assistant professor in the Dynamics and Control group within the department of Mechanical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology. She earned her Ph.D. degree in 2016 from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam on human proprioception and its applications in haptics. Her thesis was part of the STW (now TTW) Perspectief program H-Haptics, a multi-disciplinary collaboration between several Dutch universities on human-centered haptics including tele-operation systems and shared control. In 2017, she was rewarded a NWO Rubicon grant and worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at the IoNS (Institute of NeuroScience) at Université catholique de Louvain. Before joining Eindhoven University of Technology she was research scientist at TNO, working on the i-Botics program on tele-manipulation robots and embodiment. Her research interests focus on Haptics and Soft Robotics and includes human haptic perception, tele-manipulation, haptic design and human-robot interaction.
There's no silicon in these silicone robots!
Bas Overvelde
Eindhoven University of Technology
In May 2016, Johannes T.B. (Bas) Overvelde became a tenure-track Group Leader @AMOLF an academic institute for... Read more
In May 2016, Johannes T.B. (Bas) Overvelde became a tenure-track Group Leader @AMOLF an academic institute for fundamental physics with high societal relevance in Amsterdam, where he started the Soft Robotic Matter Group. The Soft Robotic Matter Group focuses on research at the crossroads of soft robotics and mechanical metamaterials. Combining computational, experimental and analytical tools, the group explores how shape, nonlinearities and feedback can be harnessed to embody intelligent behavior in mechanical systems and soft robotic devices. Overvelde received tenure in January 2021. In September 2020, Overvelde was appointed Associate Professor at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). As part of the Dynamics and Control Department, Overvelde works part-time at the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems.
3D Printed Soft Sensors
Gerjan Wolterink
University of Twente
Gerjan Wolterink, received his Ph.D. and M.Sc. degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Twente in 2022... Read more
Gerjan Wolterink, Received his Ph.D. and M.Sc. degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Twente in 2022 and 2017. With the focus on 3D printed sensing systems for upper extremity assessment of stroke patients. He is currently within the Robotics and Mechatronics group of the University of Twente as a postdoctoral researcher. He is continuing the research on 3D printed embedded sensors within the 4TU Dutch Soft Robotics Consortium.