This course is an interdisciplinary introduction to soft robotics and reviews recent works and research in this field. Soft robots are an emerging class of robots that take inspiration from natural organisms and deal with constructing robots from highly compliant materials to create soft machines that can adapt to a wide variety of tasks. The teaching encompasses theoretical and practical work on actuation and perception mechanisms, sensing technologies, control strategies, and design and fabrication techniques for soft robots. It also surveys several cases of implementing these elements in soft robotic systems. Alongside the theoretical, and methodological study, students will gain hands-on experience working with soft robotics through lab exercises and work on a final group project and build a soft robot prototype.
Topics that will be covered in this course include:
- Bioinspired soft robots
- Engineering soft materials for soft robots
- Principles of soft actuation mechanisms
- Sensing technologies for sensorized soft robots
- Control strategies for soft robots
- Computational tools for modeling and simulation of soft robots
- Design and fabrication techniques for soft robots
- Selected applications of soft robots
Find the course description for Autumn 2022 here.
