Many living beings owe to inherent continuum structures their capability to adapt to the environment and perform a multitude of tasks otherwise impossible. Studying biological models, like elephant trunks, octopus’ arms, and plants can provide insights on new and efficient ways of embodying intelligence by structure, actuation, sensing and control. Then in artificial designs, it is necessary to avoid discretization of the different embedded functionalities and material characteristics, as it seems to be one of the keys to soft robotic versatility - and today several material and fabrication approaches are holding promise in this direction. Among the open challenges are the smooth integration between sensing and actuation, together with distributed extero-proprio sensorial feedback from the continuum structure needed to ease the generation of complex control strategies.

>In this workshop, we aim to gather scientists from biology, material science, and robotics. We will highlight interesting characteristics of continuum structures in nature, and discuss possible new technological approaches for future development of soft robots, able to make smooth and robust controlled transitions among tasks, including grasping and manipulation of a wide diversity of items, growing and climbing in different environments, and more.

Description

Lucia Beccai

Barbara Mazzolai

Egidio Falotico

Cecilia Laschi

Session 1

Chair: Cecilia Laschi

Session 2

Chair: Lucia Beccai

From autonomous assembly lines, personal robot helpers, sorting robots in food production, and search & rescue operations, future robotic technology must deal with versatility, even beyond human capability, hinging on new forms of intelligence like those rooted on bioinspired design and soft robotics.

The elephant proboscis represents a remarkable biological model for a ground-breaking new concept of robotic manipulation. It is a highly sensitive organ with exceptional agility and versatility by which elephants sense and interact with the world. They can perform both strong tasks (like transporting heavy tree trunks), and delicate, highly precise tasks (such as picking up a single leaf) supported by more than a hundred thousand muscles, and a rugged skin.  

In PROBOSCIS the main idea is to take inspiration from the anatomy and morphology of the natural proboscis, as well as from its gripping behaviour, by addressing unprecedented in-depth investigations on the elephant, and to develop totally new soft robotic strategies for versatile robotic manipulation.

The overarching goal is to establish a novel paradigm of tactile-based universal manipulation for real-world robots that, inspired from elephants, engage with uncertain environments, promptly adapt to unexpected situations and perform a multitude of real-world grasping tasks.

This vision will be grounded on new developments in proprioceptive biomimetic artificial muscles, bioinspired tough tactile skin and 3D sensing strategies, multifunctional materials and 3D fabrication technologies, and bioinspired control for tactile-driven soft manipulation.

The project consortium will provide multidisciplinary expertise for producing new knowledge on the elephant proboscis, and for developing new soft robotic technologies that will impact assistive, industrial, domestic, rescue and environmental applications.

PROBOSCIS is a European project funded under the Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) programme, specifically FET-Open, of the EU framework programme for research and innovation (Horizon 2020).