Abstract

Soft robots, characterized by their softness and compliance, showcase remarkable adaptability to unstructured obstacles. Various soft sensors find various applications in soft robots, extending even to human skin. Adaptive control strategies for soft robots can manage complex tasks in unknown environments. Although some works are related to adaptability, there is still a lack of a clear definition and exhaustive research on adaptability in soft robots. This workshop aims to comprehensively review the state-of-the-art in soft robot adaptability research and foster the development of adaptability in soft robots. Esteemed experts will be invited to deliver talks on this subject, and a call for papers will be issued to attract young researchers to share their current research endeavors. Panel discussions are planned to delve into the primary developments and challenges within the realm of soft robot adaptability. 

Time: 8 am -12 pm 15th October 2024

Location: Meeting Room 12, Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC)

Organizers:

Zixi Chen, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (SSSA)

Federico Renda, Khalifa University

Josie Hughes, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

Cesare Stefanini, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (SSSA)

Di Wu, University of Southern Denmark (SDU)

Program: 

08:00-08:10 Workshop Opening

08:10-08:35 1st Talk: Barbara Mazzolai

08:35-09:00 2nd Talk: Huichan Zhao

09:00-09:25 3rd Talk: Thomas George Thurthel 

09:25-09:50 4th Talk: Cosimo Della Santina

09:50 Workshop group photo

09:50-10:30 Coffee Break

10:30-11:00 Poster Pitch

11:00-12:00 Panel Discussion

12:00 Award & Closing

Call for papers (finished)

After review, we select the following papers to present in our poster pitch session. See you in Abu Dhabi!

• Mariano Ramirez Montero, Ebrahim Shahabi, Giovanni Franzese, Jens Kober, Barbara Mazzolai, and Cosimo Della Santina, "Mastering Contact-rich Tasks by Combining Soft and Rigid Robotics with Imitation Learning."

• Seyedreza Kashef Tabrizian, Seppe Terryn, Daniel Brauchle, Jan Seyler, Joost Brancart, Guy Van Assche, and Bram Vanderborght, "Industry Collaboration on Festo FinRay Grippers: Integrating Variable Stiffness and Sensing Self-Healing Skins."

• Chunghoon Park, Jaemin Eom, Sang-Joon Ahn, Sung Yol Yu, Woongbae Kim, and Kyu-Jin Cho, "Multi-Object Gripper with Individual Grasping and Storing Mechanisms Using Fingers and Palm."

• Shamsa Al Harthy, S.M.Hadi Sadati, Zicong Wu, Carlo A. Seneci, and Christos Bergeles, "Variable Stiffness Soft Eversion Growing Robot via Low-Melting Point Alloy Pressurised Medium."

• Linh Viet Nguyen, Khoi Thanh Nguyen, and Van Anh Ho, "Vibration-driven Soft Robot."

• Laura Margheri, Barbara Mazzolai, "Towards new frontiers for distributed environmental monitoring based on an ecosystem of plant seed-like soft robots."

• Abhinav Gandhi, Shou-Shan Chiang, Cagdas D. Onal, and Berk Calli, "Grow-to-Shape Control of Variable Length Continuum Robots via Adaptive Visual Servoing." (IROS paper, presented in workshop)

Topics of Interest:

•  Soft robot, arm, end effector, and sensor design

•  Sensing in soft robots

•  Modeling and control approaches in soft robots

•  Adaptive technology in unstructured environments

•  Adaptive technology on unknown and various objects

•  Compliant material and flexible structure

•  Robust control

•  Control strategies feasible for multiple robots 

We thank the support from the following IEEE RAS Technical Committees:

• Bio Robotics

• Soft Robotics

We thank the sponsorship for the best paper award from Camozzi.