Soft Robot Manufacturing and Testing Hackathon

Workshop at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)

Pittsburgh, PA, U.S.A.
1 Oct 2026

IEEE Working Group on Reproducibility: https://www.ieee-ras.org/soft-robotics/working-groups/reproducibility

AbstractSoft robotics has shown growing use in applications where compliance grants safety, adaptability, and resilience. However, as soft robotics matures, reproducibility has become critical for comparing results, building trust in reporting, and enabling real-world deployment. Achieving reproducibility remains challenging within soft robotics due in no small part to the complexity and uniqueness of manufacturing and test methods. In order to address these growing challenges and support new generations of researchers to build on the results that came before, our community needs creative approaches and diverse voices to build the reporting guidelines to move us forward. This workshop takes the unique design of a soft robotics “hackathon”, giving participants the opportunity to engage in real soft robotic manufacturing and testing approaches, to reflect on what information constitutes a “complete process description” in the context of conference and journal publications, and to suggest new guidelines for what ought to be measured, recorded and reported. This workshop will predominantly consist of interactive activities with small teams led by senior researchers and guided by process experts, followed by whole-group discussions. We believe that this format will support mindful consideration of what, exactly, is critical to process, will allow our community to identify guidelines to increase the reproducibility of their work and will also serve as an opportunity for early career researchers to learn about manufacturing and testing methods from experts in the field.

(Mostly) Final Schedule

8:45-9:00: Open remarks by organizers

9:00-9:20: Short talk

9:20 - 9:30: Split into teams

9:30 - 10:20: Activity #1

10:20 - 11:00: Coffee Break (View posters)

11:00 - 11:50: Activity #2

11:50 - 12:30: Discussion on Activity #1 and #2

12:30-1:50: Lunch

1:50 - 2:00: Split into afternoon teams

2:00 - 2:40 Activity #3

2:40 - 3:20 Short talks

3:20 - 3:55: Coffee Break (View posters)

3:55 - 4:15 Work in groups to refine guidelines

4:15 - 5:00 Summative discussion and guideline refinement

Submit for Posters!

Submission for talks is now closed. However, attendees are still welcome to submit posters. Please e-mail your submission directly to Dr. Gina Olson (contact info here: https://www.umass.edu/robotics/people/gina-olson)

Submissions should contain:

Presenter name(s) and affiliation(s)
Preferred talk length (short or long), or identification as poster.
Abstract (up to 1 page).
Links to relevant publications, datasets, software repositories, or project websites (optional)

Planned Activities

We plan to run several activities that are representative of common manufacturing and tests conducted in soft robotics. Participants will be divided into small groups, each with an assigned group lead. Our activity stations will include:

Actuator molding
Growing robot fabrication via heat sealing
Bending actuator testing

Group Leaders

Kris Dorsey
Van Ho
Zach Patterson
Zeynep Temel
Rebecca Kramer

Kris Dorsey

Van Ho

Zach Patterson

Zeynep Temel

Rebecca Kramer

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