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Soft Robotics
From the Human Body to the Deep Sea | IROS 2026 Workshop
Welcome to the IROS 2026 Workshop on Soft Robotics in Unstructured Environments
Date: September 27, 2026 (1 - 5:30 pm)
Location: David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Pittsburgh, USA (Held in conjunction with IROS 2026)
Overview
Overview
Unstructured environments, whether inside the human body or in the deep ocean, demand robotic systems that are inherently compliant, adaptive, and resilient. Soft robots, built from deformable materials and capable of morphology-driven behavior, offer a powerful alternative to rigid machines by enabling safe physical interaction, environmental adaptability, and embodied intelligence.
This workshop explores how soft robotic principles translate across extreme scales and conditions—from targeted drug delivery and in-vivo tissue monitoring to autonomous underwater navigation and subsea infrastructure interactions.
Our Mission:
Bridge the Gap: Identify universal soft-robotic design principles that translate from small-scale medical interventions to large-scale deep-sea exploration.
Advance Material Intelligence: Explore how adaptive morphologies can offload computational complexity in fluidic and extreme environments.
Catalyze Collaboration: Provide a structured forum where experts in soft materials, biology, and field robotics can define the next decade of resilient robotics.
Schedule & Speakers
Invited Speakers: We have confirmed a lineup of world-class experts in bioinspired engineering and soft materials.
Schedule:
1:20 - 1:25 pm Opening Remarks
1:25 - 1:50 pm Robert Katzschmann: Soft robot architectures that do part of the work: from underwater swimmers to musculoskeletal hands
1:55 - 2:20 pm Raphael Zufferey: How diving-bird robots use flexibility and bio-inspired principles to move through air and in water
2:25 - 2:50 pm Tianlu Wang: Minimally invasive miniature soft robotics towards confined fluidic environments
2:50 - 3:15 pm Oral Presentations
Phanindra Tallapragada: Parametric resonance for actuating soft robots
Jiayi Jin: Distributed passive stiffness for fast and efficient bioinspired robotic swimming
Youyi Zhou: Shape-programmable magnetic soft robots for targeted, on-demand multi-cargo delivery in gastrointestinal tract
Elif Pinar Aydin: Hydrodynamic coupling in dual soft robotic flagella in a viscous environment: influence of separation distance, actuation frequency and flagellar stiffness
Xiaomeng Xu: PanoVine: Whole-body visuomotor control for soft growing vine robot
3:15 - 4:15 pm Coffee Break and Poster Session
4:15 - 4:30 pm Oral Presentations
Austin S. Mills: Peristaltic conduits with stiff skeletons and compliant skins
Jiahe Wang: Embodied shape control of a five-segment soft robotic arm using koopman observables
4:30 - 4:55 pm Yasemin Ozkan-Aydin: Soft and reconfigurable flagellated swimmers: navigating viscous media via compliance, topology, and phase coordination
4:55 - 5:20 pm Cynthia Sung:
5:20 -5:25 pm Closing Remarks
Organizers
Organizers
Yunus Alapan
Yunus Alapan
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Wei Wang
Wei Wang
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Kathryn Daltorio
Kathryn Daltorio
Case Western Reserve University
Chao Liu
Chao Liu
University of British Columbia
Barbara Mazzolai
Barbara Mazzolai
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio
Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio
Princeton University
Call for Abstracts
We invite extended abstracts that explore the intersection of soft robotics, marine systems, and medical interventions. We specifically prioritize work-in-progress on high-risk, high-reward concepts.
Topics of Interest:
Bioinspired Functional Design: Strategies from octopuses, fish, worms, and invertebrates for locomotion and sensing.
Multiscale Soft Robotics: Engineering systems that function reliably from micro-scale (medical) to meter-scale (marine).
Material Intelligence & Embodied Autonomy: Using variable stiffness and passive dynamics to reduce control burdens.
Navigating Environmental Extremes: High hydrostatic pressures, confined anatomical pathways, and sensitive surroundings.
Bio-Hybrid Systems: Integrating living tissues and advanced soft actuators.
Important Dates
Important Dates
Submission Deadline: September 6, 2026
Notification of Acceptance: September 13, 2026
Workshop Date: September 27, 2026
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