Adaptive Control Methods for Magnetoactive Soft Materials in Robotic Applications
In this PhD project we will be building macro-scale magnetoactive soft robots with integrated actuation, sensing, and control systems. The end goal on this work is to build a compact and reconfigurable magnetoactive soft robots for dynamic soft robot applications.
PhD Student: Jawad Mehmood Butt
Project period: 2025-2028
Principal supervisor: Professor Poramate Manoonpong, Professor Xiaofeng Xiong
PhD poster: Adaptive Control Methods for Magnetoactive Soft Materials in Robotic Applications
Seeing without Seeing through Bioinspired Soft Touch
In this PhD project, we aim to develop a novel soft sensor and skin inspired by the star-nosed moles’ active tactile sensing abilities, capable of transducing mechanical and textural information. By designing, fabricating, and analyzing this sensor, the goal is to address a significant challenge in robotics: integrating a sense of touch into robots. The goal can be achieved through:
- Developing a single mechanoreceptor bundle consisting of multi-sensor reading to replicate the animal’s sense of touch
- Fabricating the designed mechanoreceptor at a micro-scale level and later scaling up the fabrication to create an array of sensors similar to the star-nosed mole’s sensory structure.
- Characterizing the developed sensors' performance as a single unit and array of sensors under different touch scenarios.
PhD poster: Seeing without Seeing through Bioinspired Soft Touch (PDF)
PhD student: Arman Goshtasbi
Project period: 2023-2026
Principal supervisor: Ahmad Rafsanjani