Symposium SF03-Materials for Robotics

Many advancements in robotics depend on the development of new materials and processing technologies. By focusing on innovative manufacturing approaches, researchers can unlock new possibilities for designing advanced robotic architectures and end-effectors. Additionally, by modeling material and actuation behaviors, researchers can develop more efficient and effective robotic systems. To this end, researchers are exploring a wide range of materials that can sense external stimuli and be reconfigured into manipulators and components at various scales for use in a variety of technological areas, including automotive, minimally invasive medicine, and food industry. Programmable matter and inter-communication between materials are also research areas of interest. The goal of this symposium is to bring together researchers interested in materials and processing techniques for robotics applications. The symposium covers the development of new materials and actuation mechanisms (i.e.: magnetic fields, electric fields, light, ultrasound, chemical fuels) using innovative manufacturing sequences and approaches, such as additive manufacturing. It also focuses on designing advanced robotic architectures and end-effectors, as well as modeling material and actuation behaviors, with applications in several fields such as biomedicine, bionics, minimally invasive medicine and automobiles. The symposium will also feature advanced manipulation and navigation systems, and the use of artificial intelligence to control the actuation of materials. The symposium also embraces materials with varying mechanical, magnetic, and electric properties or devices composed of building blocks that can communicate upon stimuli. Theoretical and experimental aspects of these materials are both welcomed. This symposium offers an excellent opportunity for researchers to exchange ideas and learn about the latest developments in materials and processing technologies for robotics applications.

Topics will include:

Soft matter and soft robotics
Stimuli responsive and/or reconfigurable materials
Magnetic materials
Biocompatible Polymers
Manufacturing, including micro- and nanofabrication
Micro- and nanorobotics
Programmable and/or multifunctional matter
Manipulation and navigation systems
Actuation and sensing approaches including magnetic, electric, ultrasound, light, chemistry
Applications in minimally invasive medicine, assistive robotics, automobile

Invited Speakers:

Buse Aktas (ETH Zürich, Switzerland)
Sarah Berbreiter (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)
Xiangzhong Chen (Fudan University, China)
Hongsoo Choi (Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea)
Donglei Fan (The University of Texas at Austin, USA)
Peer Fischer (Heidelberg University, Germany)
Dario Floreano (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland)
Ankita Hume (MagnebotiX AG, Switzerland)
Cecilia Laschi (National University of Singapore, Singapore)
Veronika Magdanz (University of Waterloo, Canada)
Denys Makarov (Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Germany)
Sylvain Martel (Polytechnique Montréal, Canada)
Barbara Mazzolai (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Italy)
Berna Özkale Edelmann (Technische Universität München, Germany)
Salvador Pané (ETH Zürich, Switzerland)
Giovanni Pittiglio (Harvard Medical School, USA)
Martin Pumera (Central European Institute of Technology, Czech Republic)
Jerry Qi (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)
Samuel Sánchez Ordóñez (The Barcelona Institute for Science and Technology, Spain)
Carlos Sanchez Somolinos (Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain)
Oliver Schmidt (Technische Universität Chemnitz, Germany)
Simone Schuerle (ETH Zürich, Switzerland)
Joseph Tracy (North Carolina State University, USA)
Franziska Ullrich (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany)
Robert Wood (Harvard University, USA)
Li Zhang (Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)
Xuanhe Zhao (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)