Bioinspired Aesthetic Design of Soft Robots for Human-Robot Interaction
The aim of this PhD project is to explore the potentials and consequences of increasing the organic and nature-like properties of soft robots intended for interactions with humans (HRI).
PhD poster (link is coming soon)
PhD student: Mads Bering Christiansen
Project period: 2021-2024
Principal supervisor: Jonas Jørgensen
Co-supervisor: Ahmad Rafsanjani
Multigait Limbless Soft Robotic Locomotion
The overarching goal of this project is to develop a bioinspired multigait limbless soft robot with embodied artificial intelligence and a morphable body that is able to navigate and adapt to unstructured environments.
The specific objectives of the project are the following:
- Morphing soft robot: Design the mechanical structure of a morphable soft robot capable of multimodal limbless locomotion by incorporating soft materials and compliant structure into the body of the robot.
- Perception: Develop and embed a soft haptic perception system to feed the control system and support the adaptive locomotion of the robot.
- Control: Develop a control system embedded with a selected AI Algorithm and optimize it for adaptive exploratory tasks such as navigation and overcoming obstacles in unknown congested spaces.
- Evaluation: Design and construct experimental environments to assess the capacities and performance of the limbless soft robot in unstructured environments.
PhD poster: Multigait Limbless Soft Robotic Locomotion (PDF)
PhD student: Jonathan Andres Tirado Rosero
Project period: 2021-2024
Principal supervisor: Jonas Jørgensen
Co-supervisor: Ahmad Rafsanjani
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
Snake-Inspired Soft Robot for Rectilinear Locomotion
In this PhD project, we aim at building an autonomous snake-inspired soft robot with embodied physical and artificial intelligence for adaptive interaction with complex environments. We are developing a robotic skin to enhance the autonomy of bioinspired soft robots for locomotion on complex terrains by establishing a coupling between the body deformation, surface characteristics, and the environment.
The central hypothesis motivating this research is that coupling between the body deformation, surface characteristics, and the environment can necessarily enhance the autonomy of bioinspired soft robots for locomotion through complex terrains.
PhD poster: A Snake-Inspired Soft Robot for Rectilinear Locomotion (PDF)
PhD student: Burcu Seyidoglu
Project period: 2021-2024
Principal supervisor: Ahmad Rafsanjani