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Workshop at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)
Detroit, MI, U.S.A.
1 Oct 2023
AbstractSoft roboticists are facing challenges with reproducibility, which prevents researchers from making holistic comparisons to prior work, impedes full understanding of results, and forces the need to “reinvent the wheel,” delaying fundamental advances. Reproducibility of results is key to advancing science as well as achieving technology transfer from research laboratories to industrial applications. The purpose of this workshop is to put forth a set of voluntary draft guidelines for soft roboticists concerning fabrication/manufacturing, test procedures, and reporting. Keynotes from members of academia, government, and industry will share difficulties they have encountered when trying to reproduce results from the soft robotics literature. The workshop will include breakout sessions moderated by the organizers and speakers to discuss relevant guidelines related to the topic of each keynote. We will synthesize the perspectives of all the breakout groups into a set of draft guidelines that we intend to publish. Collectively, we hope to improve the reporting standards of soft robotics and drive the field as a whole toward more rigorous research practices.
Meet the Speakers
Meet the Speakers
Dylan Shah
Dylan Shah
Arieca Inc.
After starting his research career developing robots to improve data throughput in agronomy at Iowa State University, Dylan then completed a PhD with the Faboratory at Yale University, and served as a NASA Space Technology Research Fellow, tackling challenges in soft robotics. The overarching theme of his dissertation was embedding functionality into "robotic skins" that can allow engineers to make use of the relatively unused surfaces of robots, while also serving as a multi-functional robotic prototyping platform for resource-constrained applications (think: spacecraft, dense urban areas, remote research facilities). Since joining Arieca in April 2022, Dylan has been contributing to the commercialization of liquid metal embedded elastomers (LMEEs) to solve problems in thermal management, primarily for the automotive and semiconductor industries.
Robert MacCurdy
Robert MacCurdy
University of Colorado at Boulder
Dr. Robert MacCurdy is an assistant professor in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder where he leads the Matter Assembly Computation Lab (MACLab). He is developing new algorithms, materials, and fabrication tools to automatically design and manufacture electromechanical systems, with a focus on robotics. Rob did his PhD work with Hod Lipson at Cornell University and his postdoctoral work at MIT with Daniela Rus. He holds a B.A. in Physics from Ithaca College, a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University, and an M.S. and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University.
Jennifer Case
Jennifer Case
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
Jennifer Case graduated from Northern Illinois University in 2013 with a Bachelor's of Science in Mechanical Engineering. She graduated from Purdue University in 2019 with a Master's and PhD where she studied soft robotic design, modeling, and control under the guidance of Prof. Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio. During her study, she was a NASA Space Technology Research Fellow for four years and a Visiting Assistant Researcher at Yale University for two years. She spent the next three years at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) where she went from an NRC postdoc to co-leading the Soft Robotics and Emerging Technology for SMEs project in the Intelligent Systems Division. Jennifer is now serving as a Field Systems Engineer at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory working on the ACORN project, which will be modernizing the control system at Fermilab. At NIST, Jennifer developed an appreciation for standards and documentation as tools for project management and communication of methods and ideas. She is now applying those same concepts to her work at Fermilab.
Call for student submissions
Call for student submissions
Submission deadline: August 25, 2023.
We invite students of all levels engaged in soft robotics research to submit manufacturing procedures as samples for the round table discussions on manufacturing reproducibility, which will be held during the workshop. Traditional publication formats do not often lend themselves to clear communication of manufacturing procedures, leading to a gap between what appears in the published work and what it actually takes to manufacture a soft robot. During the round table discussions, students will be given the opportunity to present and receive feedback on their manufacturing methods. These discussions will be moderated by an organizer, and are intended to be constructive, positive experiences that will aid the community in developing guidelines to improve communication of manufacturing processes. To submit, use the form to the left to upload the required documents.
Accepted contributions will be expected to write a more detailed manufacturing procedure to be discussed during the workshop. Students that are selected and participate in the event will be invited to a celebratory dinner with the organizers after the workshop.
Workshop Schedule
Organizers
Organizers
Dr. Robert Baines (Yale University)
Prof. Laura Blumenschein (Purdue University)
Dr. Jennifer Case (Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory)
Prof. Gina Olson (University of Massachusetts Amherst)
Dr. Andrew Spielberg (Harvard University)
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