We are excited to announce the winners of the 2023 Soft Robotic Design Competition!
The SRT Competition returned in 2023 with 35 interested applicants competing across three different categories (Open, College, and High School) and with participants from around the world. The mission of the competition is to showcase and promote the next generation of Soft Robotic Technology. We did just that with a high variety of projects submitted. The winner of the Open Category was a Torsional Soft Gripper called ROSE from the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) which has promised to revolutionize the agriculture industry and related fields! Additional winners from all of the categories included a soft origami robot, a soft robotic hand, an assistive cooking device, as well as a novel soft prosthetic device. We're very excited to see new ideas continue to be developed and for the field to continually grow.
We hope you'll join our competition next time! Without further ado please read below for a description of our winners.
Winners for Open Category in Soft Robotics Research
Winner:
ROSE: Torsional Robotic Soft Gripper (Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST))
ROSE is a novel soft gripper that can embrace objects and squeeze them by buckling a funnel-liked thin-walled soft membrane around the object by simply rotating the base. That principle allows ROSE to fit a wide range of objects within its funnel and apply a mild grasping force.The ROSE gripper can be easily integrated into an industrial robot arm with end effector rotation by using a basic adapter, making it a plug-and-play solution.
Runner up:
Hold ’em and Fold ’em: Towards Human-scale, Feedback-Controlled Soft Origami Robots (Northeastern University)
Exploring Soft Origami Robots that are able to control and actuate human-scale loads. More specifically these robots demonstrate, proprioceptive (embodied) feedback control of a soft, pneumatically-actuated origami robot; and actuation of these origami origami robots under a person’s weight in an open-loop configuration.
Winners for College Category in Soft Robotics Research
Winner:
Dual-Mode Soft Robotics for Enhancing Kitchen Independence for Fine Motor Disabilities (Barker College in Hornsby, Australia)
The soft robotic device developed in this project allows individuals with motor challenges to prepare food in the kitchen by providing a pneumatic device capable of ‘clamping’ vegetables to slice them in half and a separate “PneuNet” device designed for holding flat, softer vegetables while they are more finely chopped.
Runner up:
Soft Robotic Hand (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Creating a beginner exploration kit in soft robotics that features a mock prosthetic hand that works as a low cost robot for use in a variety of settings such as: K-12 classrooms, undergraduate engineering projects, or personal projects. The design utilizes a flex sensor which, when activated, actuates a soft flexible finger that is connected to a DC motor and controlled by an Arduino Nano.
Winners for High School Category in Soft Robotics Research
Winner:
4D Prosthetic (Quarry Lane School)
Utilizing shape memory polymers to reproduce more nuanced motion such as that of the hand. Shape memory polymers are an interesting material in the field of soft robotics as it can deform to any shape, but once heated to a certain temperature it returns to the original state.
Expert Judging Panel
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Dr. Yirmibesoglu is a distinguished researcher and innovator who earned his Ph.D. from Oregon State University under the mentorship of Dr. Yigit Menguc. His doctoral work focused on additive manufacturing of silicone-based soft robotics, leading to the invention of the world's first Desktop silicone 3D printer in 2018. Collaborating with Dr. Uranbileg Daalkhaijav, they discovered a method for 3D printing liquid metal (eGaIn). Following his Ph.D., he conducted postdoctoral research at Yale University under Prof. Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio, specializing in bio-inspired burrowing soft robotic systems. Dr. Yirmibesoglu has further enriched his expertise through roles at Meta Reality Labs and Amazon Robotics and AI, contributing significantly to various robotics projects. Currently affiliated with The AI Institute, his research focuses on advancing dexterous mobile manipulation with hybrid robotics systems. |
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Vanessa Sanchez is an incoming Assistant Professor joining Rice University's Department of Mechanical Engineering in Summer 2024. She aims to make our clothing smarter and more assistive through working at the intersection of materials, manufacturing, and robotics. Her research has been featured in Vice, Wired, and Engadget and she has been named to the list of 50 Women in Robotics You Need to Know, recognized as an ACS CAS Future Leader, and selected for Forbes 30 Under 30. |
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Sheila Russo is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Division of Materials Science and Engineering at Boston University (BU) where she leads the Material Robotics Laboratory. Her research interests include medical and surgical robotics, soft robotics, origami-inspired mechanisms, sensing and actuation, and meso- and micro-scale manufacturing techniques. In 2020 she received the NIH Trailblazer Award for New and Early Stage Investigators. |
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Nikolaus Correll is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He obtained his PhD from EPFL in Switzerland and did a Post-doc at MIT CSAIL, contributing early work to the emerging field of soft robotics. His current research interests are robotic materials and robotic manipulation. |
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A researcher at the Isfahan University of Technology with almost about 14 years of experience in robotics, electronics, textiles, nanomaterials, mechanics, and wearable systems, Ali Aghaei has completed various academic and industrial projects in the field of robotics, smart textiles, and automation in corporation with the university and industry. Ali's focus is on the development of advanced flexible sensors and actuators for soft robots and wearable applications. |