Abstract

Current soft robot designs largely rely on fluid power drives or motor-controlled tendon systems to achieve actuation without compromising the system compliance and flexibility. These actuator technologies require rigid and cumbersome drives such as compressors, pumps, or electromagnetic motors which unavoidably compromises the robot efficiency, weight, and autonomy. Recent advances in materials science enable a completely different approach to soft actuation and sensing. Functional material transducers such as dielectric elastomers, shape memory alloys, hydrogels, or liquid crystal elastomers have the ability to react to an external stimulus (e.g. electrical, magnetic, thermal, chemical) by modifying their mechanical characteristics (e.g. strain, force, stiffness). Thanks to features such as large deformations, high energy efficiency, low weight, electrical controllability, silent operation, and self-sensing, these materials offer new possibilities for integrating and distributing actuation/sensing within the robot's own structure. 

This workshop aims at presenting recent approaches to soft robotics based on functional material transducers. The main goal is to provide a broad overview of different types of materials and their respective applications in soft robotics, highlighting the main features and challenges for each one of them. Invited talks from recognized experts will discuss state-of-the-art results in design, system integration, modeling, and control of soft robots based on functional materials. Poster presentations and demo sessions will further enrich the spectrum of presented approaches and promote interactivity.