IFRR Colloquium on Soft Robotics

Prof. Niiyama (Group leader of A01, U Tokyo) will appear on IFRR Colloquium on Soft Robotics (Free, online) as one of the panelists.

Overview

Moderator: Robert Katzschmann (ETH Zurich)
Panelists: Cecilia Laschi (NUS), Ryuma Niiyama (UTokyo), Michael Tolley (UCSD), Robert Shepherd (Cornell), Robert Katzschmann (ETH Zurich)

Title: Will soft robots be essential for solving the canonical challenges in robotics?

Panel Summary: The field of soft robotics has been rapidly growing for the last decade, churning out new material, actuator, modeling, control, and learning technologies almost every day. With an integrative creation and control strategy centered around the concept of embodied intelligence and physical AI, soft robotics is attempting to solve the canonical challenges in many fields of robotics research. We have invited a selection of experts with extensive experience in this vibrant research area. This panel aims to provide an opportunity to discuss and learn about the ongoing research work, what has recently been solved, and what remains as open research problems. In particular, the panel will focus on the following questions:

1. In what regards do soft robots already outperform their rigid counterparts?
2. Which scientific advancements of the past decade contributed most to making soft robots more capable and relevant to society?
3. Which soft robotic technologies will soon solve open robotic challenges in the areas of manipulation, locomotion, medical, and human-robot interaction?
4. Which topic areas in soft robotics (i.e., materials, design, fabrication, modeling, control, and learning) require the most progress and innovation in the years to come?
5. With infinite financial resources, which investments in advanced machinery and technology would quickly advance this research field?