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This assistive robot is designed to adapt to users with different body sizes and physical abilities. It supports posture transitions such as sit-to-stand and stand-to-sit, and provides protective assistance to reduce the risk of falls during walking. The robotic arm combines inherent compliance with high load-bearing capability along specific directions. After being driven by artificial muscles to the target configuration, the arm can actively change its stiffness to achieve a stable, locked state.

Soft Robotics Lab is exploring Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT). It is a sensing technology that enables the detection of impedance changes within a conductive field, making it well suited for sensing in soft robots. In the picture, using EIT technology, objects immersed in saline water can be readily detected.

Soft Robotics Lab is exploring a novel way of soft robot actuation: Using Shape Memory Alloy (SMA). SMA is a smart material that is widely used as an artificial muscle for actuating soft robots. In the picture, following the muscular structure of the octopus arm, two soft robot arms are developed to study the animal behaviours and dexterous manipulation.

Dexterity and accurate object manipulation are among the key research areas in the control of soft robotics we pursue. One such ongoing work includes an elephant-trunk-like soft arm with tip-gripper is mounted on a rigid robot arm, to provide both dexeterity and accuracy. The rigid-soft hybrid robot aims for multi-functional grasping and manipulation inspired by elephants.

This research work presents a fully edible universal particle-jamming gripper with self-healing property made from a gelatin-based hydrogel membrane, starch particles, and PHA bioplastic. By exploiting negative-pressure-induced particle jamming, the gripper achieves universal grasping ability and can securely lift objects over 1 kg, demonstrating a practical end-effector module for future fully edible soft robotic systems.

In Soft Robotics Lab, we actively strive for introducing embodied intelligence in soft body operations. One such example includes a paper titled: Octopus-Swimming-Like Robot with Soft Asymmetric Arms. The work enables fully passive, octopus-like swimming pattern generation through interaction with the surrounding water, driven by only a single constant-speed input. This work originated from an NUS postgraduate project by Bobing Zhang, co-supervised by Prof. Cecilia Laschi and PhD candidate Yiyuan Zhang, highlighting the NUS Soft Robotics Lab’s shared commitment to research cultivation and education.

A Rod-like soft continuum arm independently is capable of (1) Maze exploration, (2) Teaching Robot, and (3) Under black water exploration.

Wang, Peiyi, Zhexin Xie, Wenci Xin, Zhiqiang Tang, Xinhua Yang, Muralidharan Mohanakrishnan, Sheng Guo, and Cecilia Laschi. “Sensing Expectation Enables Simultaneous Proprioception and Contact Detection in an Intelligent Soft Continuum Robot.” Nature Communications 15, no. 1 (2024): 9978.

The Gordon Research Conference in Robotics was held in January with an impressive line-up of prestigious and visionary speakers, fueling an enlightening discussion on the scientific challenges of our field. Chairs: Cecilia Laschi and Metin Sitti.

The 2024 IEEE International Conference in Soft Robotics is held in San Diego. As always, a great opportunity for presenting and listening about the most recent achievement in this lively and creative community.

The 2024 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems is held in Abu Dhabi, UAE. One of the two largest robotics conferences, a big event gathering our community around a top-level technical program, enriched by forums on relevant emerging topics, competitions, exhibition, and more. General Chair: Jorge Dias, Program Chair: Cecilia Laschi