Russell H. Taylor has over 40 years of professional experience in the fields of computer science, robotics, and computer-integrated interventional medicine. &nbsp;He received a Bachelor of Engineering Science degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1970 and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University in 1976.&nbsp;He joined IBM Research in 1976, where he developed the AML robot language and managed the Automation Technology Department and (later) the <a href="http://cs.jhu.edu/~rht/RHT%20Medical%20Robotics%20Research%20at%20IBM.html" target="_blank">Computer-Assisted Surgery Group</a> before moving in 1995 to Johns Hopkins, where he is the John C. Malone Professor of Computer Science with joint appointments in Mechanical Engineering, Radiology, and Surgery. &nbsp;He is also the Director of the <a href="https://lcsr.jhu.edu/" target="_blank">Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics (LCSR</a>) and of the (graduated) NSF Engineering Research Center for Computer-Integrated Surgical Systems and Technology (CISST ERC).Dr. Taylor’s research interests include robotics, human-machine cooperative systems, medical imaging &amp; modeling, and computer-integrated interventional systems. He is Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of The IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, and has served on numerous other editorial and scientific advisory boards. &nbsp;In 1994 he was elected as a Fellow of the IEEE “for contributions in the theory and implementation of programmable sensor-based robot systems and their application to surgery and manufacturing”, and he is also a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, of the AIMBE, of the MICCAI Society, and of the Engineering School of the University of Tokyo. In 2020, Dr. Taylor was elected to the National Academy of Engineering “for contributions to the development of medical robotics and computer-integrated systems.” &nbsp;He is also a recipient of numerous awards, including 4 IBM Outstanding Achievement Awards; 4 IBM Invention Awards; the Maurice Müller Award for Excellence in Computer-Assisted Orthopaedic Surgery; the IEEE Robotics Pioneer Award; the MICCAI Society Enduring Impact Award; the IEEE EMBS Technical Field Award; and the Honda Prize.<h1>Soft Robotics with&nbsp;Russell Taylor</h1>Marwa ElDiwiny, host of the Soft Robotics podcast, interviews Rusell about Redundancy And The Unavoidable Trade-offs At Surgical Robotics.<iframe src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/6COMP0eZxbR3PPQMPe5Kjo" width="100%" height="232" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" class="fr-draggable"></iframe>

On Redundancy And The Unavoidable Trade-offs At Surgical Robotics

Russell Taylor "Surgical Robotics"

Markus J. Buehler is an American materials scientist and engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he is the McAfee Professor of Engineering. He is a member of the faculty at MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, where he directs the Laboratory for Atomistic and Molecular Mechanics (LAMM), and also a member of MIT's Center for Computational Science and Engineering (CCSE) in the Schwarzman College of Computing. Between 2013-2020, he served as the Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT.His research and teaching activities center on the application of a computational materials science approach to understand functional material properties in biological and synthetic materials, specifically focused on mechanical properties. His work incorporates materials science, engineering, mathematics and the establishment of links between natural materials with the arts through the use of category theory.&nbsp;Working at the interface of art and science, he is also a composer of experimental music with an interest in sonification, whereby he developed a method to translate material structure into musical form and vice versa, realizing a materialization of sonic information in biomaterials protein design. He is well-known for the development of the materiomusical compositional technique. In 2020, he set the pathogen of COVID-19 to music, exemplifying a relationship between art and science.<h1>Soft Robotics with Markus Buehler</h1>Marwa ElDiwiny, host of the Soft Robotics podcast, interviews Markus about his work in soft robotics.&nbsp;<iframe src="https://open.spotify.com/embed-podcast/episode/1AfN8bk9NVP5rsDCPfuJum" width="100%" height="232" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" class="fr-draggable"></iframe>

Building Intelligence In Materials

Soft Robotics With Markus Buehler

Hod Lipson is a roboticist who works in the areas of artificial intelligence and digital manufacturing. He and his students love designing and building robots that do what you’d least expect robots to do: Self replicate, self-reflect, ask questions, and even be creative. &nbsp;Lipson’s research asks questions such as: Can robots ultimately design and make other robots? Can machines be curious and creative? &nbsp;Will robots ever be truly self-aware? Answers to these questions can help illuminate life’s big mysteries. &nbsp;An award-winning researcher, teacher, and communicator, Lipson enjoys sharing the beauty of robotics though his books, essays, public lectures, and radio and television appearances. He is a professor of Mechanical Engineering and Data Science at Columbia University, where he directs the <a href="http://creativemachineslab.com/" target="_blank">Creative Machines Lab</a>, which pioneers new ways to make machines that create, and machines that are&nbsp;creative.Before joining Columbia University in 2015, Lipson spent 14 years as a professor at Cornell University. He received his PhD in 1999 from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, followed by a postdoc at Brandeis University and MIT. &nbsp;His &nbsp;work on <a href="http://www.creativemachineslab.com/research.html" target="_blank">self-aware and self-replicating robots</a> challenges conventional views of robotics and has enjoyed widespread media coverage. He has also pioneered open-source 3D printing, as well as electronics 3D printing, bio-printing and food printing. Lipson has co-authored over <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=F_Go4V4AAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank">300 publications that received over 14,000</a> citations to date. He has co-founded four companies, and is frequent keynoter at both industry and academic events. His <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/hod_lipson_builds_self_aware_robots" target="_blank">TED Talk on self-aware machines</a> is one of the most viewed presentations on AI and robotics.<h2>Soft Robotics With Hod Lipson</h2>Marwa ElDiwiny, host of the Soft Robotics podcast, interviews Hod about his work in soft robotics.&nbsp;<iframe src="https://open.spotify.com/embed-podcast/episode/1bzfmuDhP7I4kwf2zwSmyn" width="100%" height="232" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" class="fr-draggable"></iframe>

Interesting discussion with Hod Lipson, the head of Creative Machines Lab, Columbia University in New York. In this episode, Can robots be Self-aware? Can robots design other robots and self-repair? Why should we evolve robots to do tasks that animals do so well?

Soft Robotics With Hod Lipson

Engineers at Duke University have developed an electronics-free, entirely soft robot shaped like a dragonfly that can skim across water and react to environmental conditions such as pH, temperature or the presence of oil. The proof-of-principle demonstration could be the precursor to more advanced, autonomous, long-range environmental sentinels for monitoring a wide range of potential telltale signs of problems.The soft robot is described online March 25 in the journal Advanced Intelligent Systems.Soft robots are a growing trend in the industry due to their versatility. Soft parts can handle delicate objects such as biological tissues that metal or ceramic components would damage. Soft bodies can help robots float or squeeze into tight spaces where rigid frames would get stuck.The expanding field was on the mind of <a href="https://bme.duke.edu/faculty/shyni-varghese" target="_blank">Shyni Varghese</a>, professor of biomedical engineering, mechanical engineering and materials science, and orthopaedic surgery at Duke, when inspiration struck.“I got an email from Shyni from the airport saying she had an idea for a soft robot that uses a self-healing hydrogel that her group has invented in the past to react and move autonomously,” said Vardhman Kumar, a PhD student in Varghese’s laboratory and first author of the paper. “But that was the extent of the email, and I didn’t hear from her again for days. So the idea sort of sat in limbo for a little while until I had enough free time to pursue it, and Shyni said to go for it.”In 2012, Varghese and her laboratory created a self-healing hydrogel that reacts to changes in pH in a matter of seconds. Whether it be a crack in the hydrogel or two adjoining pieces “painted” with it, a change in acidity causes the hydrogel to form new bonds, which are completely reversible when the pH returns to its original levels.Varghese’s hastily written idea was to find a way to use this hydrogel on a soft robot that could travel across water and indicate places where the pH changes. Along with a few other innovations to signal changes in its surroundings, she figured her lab could design such a robot as a sort of autonomous environmental sensor.With the help of Ung Hyun Ko, a postdoctoral fellow also in Varghese’s laboratory, Kumar began designing a soft robot based on a fly. After several iterations, the pair settled on the shape of a dragonfly engineered with a network of interior microchannels that allow it to be controlled with air pressure.They created the body—about 2.25 inches long with a 1.4-inch wingspan—by pouring silicon into an aluminum mold and baking it. The team used soft lithography to create interior channels and connected with flexible silicon tubing.DraBot was born.<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bTjZQMvagJ8?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" style="width: 787px; height: 427px;"></iframe><main><section>“Getting DraBot to respond to air pressure controls over long distances using only self-actuators without any electronics was difficult,” said Ko. “That was definitely the most challenging part.”DraBot works by controlling the air pressure coming into its wings. Microchannels carry the air into the front wings, where it escapes through a series of holes pointed directly into the back wings. If both back wings are down, the airflow is blocked, and DraBot goes nowhere. But if both wings are up, DraBot goes forward.To add an element of control, the team also designed balloon actuators under each of the back wings close to DraBot’s body. When inflated, the balloons cause the wings to curl upward. By changing which wings are up or down, the researchers tell DraBot where to go.“We were happy when we were able to control DraBot, but it’s based on living things,” said Kumar. “And living things don’t just move around on their own, they react to their environment.”That’s where self-healing hydrogel comes in. By painting one set of wings with the hydrogel, the researchers were able to make DraBot responsive to changes in the surrounding water’s pH. If the water becomes acidic, one side’s front wing fuses with the back wing. Instead of traveling in a straight line as instructed, the imbalance causes the robot to spin in a circle. Once the pH returns to a normal level, the hydrogel “un-heals,” the fused wings separate, and DraBot once again becomes fully responsive to commands.To beef up its environmental awareness, the researchers also leveraged the sponges under the wings and doped the wings with temperature-responsive materials. When DraBot skims over water with oil floating on the surface, the sponges will soak it up and change color to the corresponding color of oil. And when the water becomes overly warm, DraBot’s wings change from red to yellow.The researchers believe these types of measurements could play an important part in an environmental robotic sensor in the future. Responsiveness to pH can detect freshwater acidification, which is a serious environmental problem affecting several geologically-sensitive regions. The ability to soak up oils makes such long-distance skimming robots an ideal candidate for early detection of oil spills. Changing colors due to temperatures could help spot signs of red tide and the bleaching of coral reefs, which leads to decline in the population of aquatic life.The team also sees many ways that they could improve on their proof-of-concept. Wireless cameras or solid-state sensors could enhance the capabilities of DraBot. And creating a form of onboard propellant would help similar bots break free of their tubing.“Instead of using air pressure to control the wings, I could envision using some sort of synthetic biology that generates energy,” said Varghese. “That’s a totally different field than I work in, so we’ll have to have a conversation with some potential collaborators to see what’s possible. But that’s part of the fun of working on an interdisciplinary project like this.”<hr>This work was mostly performed at Shared Materials and Instrumentation facility (SMIF) at Duke University, a core facility supported by the National Science Foundation (ECCS-1542015) as part of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI).“Microengineered Materials with Self-healing Features for Soft Robotics.” V. Kumar, U. Ko, Y. Zhou, J. Hoque, G. Arya, and S. Varghese. Adv. Intel. Sys., 2021. DOI: 10.1002/aisy.202100005</section></main>

With the ability to sense changes in pH, temperature and oil, this completely soft robot dubbed 'DraBot' could be the prototype for future environmental sentinels

Electronics-free DraBot uses air pressure, microarchitectures and self-healing hydrogels to watch for changes in pH, temperature and oil

Soft Robotic Dragonfly Signals Environmental Disruptions

Mark R. Cutkosky is the Fletcher Jones Professor in the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. He joined Stanford in 1985, after working in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University and as a design engineer at ALCOA, in Pittsburgh, PA. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 1985.Cutkosky’s research activities include robotic manipulation and tactile sensing and the design and fabrication of biologically inspired robots. He has graduated 48 Ph.D. students and published extensively in these areas. He consults with companies on robotics and human/computer interaction devices and holds several patents on related technologies. His work has been featured in Discover Magazine, The New York Times, National Geographic, Time Magazine and other publications and has appeared on PBS NOVA, CBS Evening News, and other popular media.Cutkosky’s awards include a Fulbright Faculty Chair (Italy 2002), Fletcher Jones and Charles M. Pigott Chairs at Stanford University, an NSF Presidential Young Investigator award and Times Magazine Best Innovations (2006) for the Stickybot gecko-inspired robot. He is a fellow of ASME and IEEE and a member of Sigma Xi.<h1 dir="ltr">Soft Robotics With Mark Cutkosky&nbsp;</h1>Marwa ElDiwiny, host of the Soft Robotics podcast, interviews Mark about his work in soft robotics.<iframe src="https://open.spotify.com/embed-podcast/episode/6237w6uZUttAH7nW4lhAPf" width="100%" height="232" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" class="fr-draggable"></iframe>

Cutkosky applies analyses, simulations, and experiments to the design and control of robotic hands, tactile sensors, and devices for human/computer interaction. In manufacturing, his work focuses on design tools for rapid prototyping.

Soft Robotics With Mark Cutkosky "Gecko Climbing Robots"

Katia Bertoldi is the William and Ami Kuan Danoff Professor of Applied Mechanics at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. She earned master degrees from Trento University (Italy) in 2002 and from Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden) in 2003, majoring in Structural Engineering Mechanics. Upon earning a Phd. degree in Mechanics of Materials and Structures from Trento University, in 2006, Katia joined as a PostDoc in the group of Mary Boyce at MIT. &nbsp;In 2008 she moved to the University of Twente (the Netherlands) where she was an Assistant Professor in the faculty of Engineering Technology. In January 2010 Katia joined the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University and established a group studying the mechanics of materials and structures. She is the recipient of the NSF Career Award 2011 and of the ASME's 2014 Hughes Young Investigator Award. She serves as an Associate Editor for the journal Extreme Mechanics Letters. She published over 120 peer-reviewed papers and several patents.&nbsp;Dr Bertoldi’s research contributes to the design of materials with a carefully designed meso-structure that leads to novel effective behavior at the macroscale. She investigates both mechanical and acoustic properties of such structured materials, with a particular focus on harnessing instabilities and strong geometric nonlinearities to generate new modes of functionality. Since the properties of the designed architected materials are primarily governed by the geometry of the structure (as opposed to constitutive ingredients at the material level), the principles she discovers are universal and can be applied to systems over a wide range of length scales.<h1 dir="ltr">Katia Bertoldi "Material And Geometric Nonlinearities To Design Novel Materials"</h1>Marwa ElDiwiny, host of the Soft Robotics podcast, interviews Katia about material and geometric nonlinearities to design novel materials. &nbsp;<iframe src="https://open.spotify.com/embed-podcast/episode/251sxA0Y4qSloCpDVDfNEA" width="100%" height="232" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" class="fr-draggable"></iframe>

In this episode, we spoke about Material And Geometric Nonlinearities To Design Novel Materials. Can we design a simple structure with advanced functionalities? What are the accessible features with nonlinearities and which material's nonlinearities could be accessible?

Katia Bertoldi "Material And Geometric Nonlinearities To Design Novel Materials"

Metin Sitti is the director of the Physical Intelligence Department of the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart and an adjunct professor of Koc University School of Medicine. He obtained his PhD in Tokyo&nbsp;University.&nbsp;He was a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA (2002-2014) and a research scientist at University of California at Berkeley, USA (1999-2002). He received the BSc (1992) and MSc (1994) degrees in electrical and electronics engineering and physics from Boğaziçi University, Turkey, and the PhD degree (1999) in electrical engineering from the University of Tokyo, Japan.He has pioneered many research areas, including wireless miniature medical soft robots, gecko-inspired microfiber adhesives, bio-inspired miniature robots, and physical intelligence. As selected awards, he received the ERC Advanced Grant (2019), Rahmi Koç Medal of Science (2018), Best Paper Award in the Robotics Science and Systems Conference (2019), IEEE/ASME Best Mechatronics Paper Award (2014), SPIE Nanoengineering Pioneer Award (2011), Best Paper Award in the IEEE/RSJ Intelligent Robots and Systems Conference (1998, 2009), and NSF CAREER Award (2005). Prof. Sitti has published two books and over 460 peer-reviewed papers, over 300 of which have appeared in archival journals.<h1 dir="ltr">Soft Robotics With Metin Sitti</h1>Marwa ElDiwiny, host of the Soft Robotics podcast, interviews Metin about his work in soft robotics.&nbsp;<iframe src="https://open.spotify.com/embed-podcast/episode/7HUF6K32exEqp86qOVZ2fg" width="100%" height="232" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" class="fr-draggable"></iframe>

Thoughtful discussion with Prof.Metin Sitti about physical intelligence, Wireless soft miniature medical robots actuation, and computation, What are the unavoidable trade-offs in material design? The role of evolutionary methodology for designing responsive materials, how you get disruptive ideas.

Soft Robotics With Metin Sitti

Festo pneumatic muscle actuator promotional image.

Advancements in pressurized fluid power systems may hold the key to the next generation of Biomimetic Robots.

Biomechanical Marvel-Fluidic Muscle Technology

The heart-on-a-chip is entirely 3D printed with built-in sensors that measure the contractile strength of the tissue, providing scientists with new possibilities for studying the musculature of the heart 

Technique paves the way for more complex, customizable devices

3D-printed heart-on-a-chip with integrated sensors

<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1569983765878-HeartSleeveInVirtoFinal_0.gif" style="width: 633px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">In vitro demonstration of the pumping of the soft robotic sleeve (Video courtesy of Ellen Roche/Harvard University)&nbsp;Harvard University and Boston Children&rsquo;s Hospital researchers have developed a customizable soft robot that fits around a heart and helps it beat, potentially opening new treatment options for people suffering from heart failure.The soft robotic sleeve twists and compresses in synch with a beating heart, augmenting cardiovascular functions weakened by heart failure. Unlike currently available devices that assist heart function, Harvard&rsquo;s soft robotic sleeve does not directly contact blood. This reduces the risk of clotting and eliminates the need for a patient to take potentially dangerous blood thinner medications. The device may one day be able to bridge a patient to transplant or to aid in cardiac rehabilitation and recovery.&ldquo;This research demonstrates that the growing field of soft robotics can be applied to clinical needs and potentially reduce the burden of heart disease and improve the quality of life for patients,&rdquo; said Ellen T. Roche, the paper&rsquo;s first author and former PhD student at the&nbsp;<a href="http://seas.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences</a> (SEAS) and&nbsp;<a href="http://wyss.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">The Wyss Institute&nbsp;</a><a href="http://wyss.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">of</a><a href="http://wyss.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">&nbsp;Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University</a>. &nbsp;Roche is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the National University of Ireland Galway.The research, published in&nbsp;<a href="http://stm.sciencemag.org/" target="_blank">Science Translational Medicine</a>, was a collaboration between SEAS, the Wyss Institute and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.childrenshospital.org/" target="_blank">Boston Children&rsquo;s Hospital</a>.&ldquo;This work represents an exciting proof of concept result for this soft robot, demonstrating that it can safely interact with soft tissue and lead to improvements in cardiac function. We envision many other future applications where such devices can delivery&nbsp;<a href="https://wyss.harvard.edu/disruptive-mechanotherapeutics-from-drugs-to-wearables-2/" target="_blank">mechanotherapy</a> both inside and outside of the body,&rdquo; said&nbsp;<a href="https://www.seas.harvard.edu/directory/walsh" target="_blank">Conor Walsh</a>, senior author of the paper and the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences at SEAS and Core Faculty Member at the Wyss Institute.Heart failure affects 41 million people worldwide. Today, some of the options to treat it are mechanical pumps called&nbsp;<a name="OLE_LINK2" id="OLE_LINK2" target="_blank"></a><a id="OLE_LINK1" name="OLE_LINK1" target="_blank">ventricular assist devices&nbsp;</a>(VADs), which pump blood from the ventricles into the aorta, and heart transplant. While VADs are continuously improving, patients are still at high risk for blood clots and stroke.To create an entirely new device that doesn&rsquo;t come into contact with blood, Harvard researchers took inspiration from the heart itself. The thin silicone sleeve uses soft pneumatic actuators placed around the heart to mimic the outer muscle layers of the mammalian heart. &nbsp;The actuators twist and compress the sleeve in a similar motion to the beating heart.The device is tethered to an external pump, which uses air to power the soft actuators.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1569983812883-HeartSleeveFinalGif1.gif" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">In vivo demonstration of cardiac assist in a porcine model of acute heart failure (Video courtesy of Ellen Rouche/Harvard SEAS)The sleeve can be customized for each patient, said Roche. If a patient has more weakness on the left side of the heart, for example, the actuators can be tuned to give more assistance on that side. The pressure of the actuators can also increase or decrease over time, as the patient&rsquo;s condition evolves.The sleeve is attached to the heart using a combination of a suction device, sutures and a gel interface to help with friction between the device and the heart.The SEAS and Wyss engineers worked with surgeons at Boston Children&rsquo;s Hospital to develop the device and determine the best ways to implant the device and test it on animal models.&ldquo;The cardiac field had turned away from idea of developing heart compression instead of blood-pumping VADs due to technological limitations, but now with advancements in soft robotics it&rsquo;s time to turn back,&rdquo; said Frank Pigula, a cardiothoracic surgeon and co-corresponding author on the study, who was formerly clinical director of pediatric cardiac surgery at Boston Children&rsquo;s Hospital and is now a faculty member at University of Louisville and division chief of pediatric cardiac surgery at Norton Children&rsquo;s Hospital. &ldquo;Most people with heart failure do still have some function left; one day the robotic sleeve may help their heart work well enough that their quality of life can be restored.&quot;More research needs to be done before the sleeve can be implanted in humans but the research is an important first step towards an implantable soft robot that can augment organ function.Harvard&rsquo;s<a href="http://otd.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">&nbsp;Office of Technology Development&nbsp;</a>has filed a patent application and is actively pursuing commercialization opportunities.&ldquo;This research is really significant at the moment because more and more people are surviving heart attacks and ending up with heart failure,&rdquo; said Roche. &ldquo;Soft robotic devices are ideally suited to interact with soft tissue and give assistance that can help with augmentation of function, and potentially even healing and recovery.&rdquo;

Harvard researchers have developed a customizable soft robot that fits around a heart and helps it beat, potentially opening new treatment options for people suffering from heart failure. The device is tethered to an external pump, which uses air to power the soft actuators

Sleeve attaches directly around the heart

Soft robot helps the heart beat

Hybrid silicone-fabric sensor detects fine motor movements by flexing with the body

Soft and stretchy fabric-based sensors for wearable robots

Rear view of the ankle-assisting exosuits with its soft robotic elements and the cable that transfers mechanical power from actuators operated from the hip to the ankle join. (Image courtesy of the Rolex Awards/Fred Merz)

A soft wearable robotic suit promotes normal walking in stroke patients, opening new approaches to gait re-training and rehabilitation

Post-stroke patients reach terra firma with exosuit technology

Flexible endoscopes can snake through narrow passages to treat difficult to reach areas of the body. However, once they arrive at their target, these devices rely on rigid surgical tools to manipulate or remove tissue. These tools offer surgeons reduced dexterity and sensing, limiting the current therapeutic capabilities of the endoscope.Now, researchers from the&nbsp;<a href="http://seas.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences</a> and&nbsp;<a href="http://wyss.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering</a> at Harvard University have developed a hybrid rigid-soft robotic arm for endoscopes with integrated sensing, flexibility, and multiple degrees of freedom. This arm &mdash; built using a manufacturing paradigm based on pop-up fabrication and soft lithography &mdash; lies flat on an endoscope until it arrives at the desired spot, then pops up to assist in surgical proceduresThe research is described in <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/admt.201700135/full" target="_blank">Advanced Materials Technologies</a>.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1569906785018-ArmwithWritingWeb.jpg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Multi-articulated soft pop-up robotic arm. Concept of the system (left): An endoscope navigating in the GI tract and detail of the arm mounted at the tip of the endoscope. Soft pop-up arm (right) performing tissue counter-traction during an ex-vivo test on a porcine stomach (Image courtesy of Harvard University)Soft robots are so promising for surgical applications because they can match the stiffness of the body, meaning they won&rsquo;t accidentally puncture or tear tissue. However, at small scales, soft materials cannot generate enough force to perform surgical tasks.&ldquo;At the millimeter scale, a soft device becomes so soft that it can&rsquo;t damage tissue but it also can&rsquo;t manipulate the tissue in any meaningful way,&rdquo; said Tommaso Ranzani, a postdoctoral fellow at SEAS and the Wyss Institute and coauthor of the paper. &nbsp;&ldquo;That limits the application of soft microsystems for performing therapy. The question is, how can we develop soft robots that are still able to generate the necessary forces without compromising safety.&rdquo;Inspired by biology, the team developed a hybrid model that used a rigid skeleton surrounded by soft materials. The manufacturing method drew on previous work in origami-inspired, pop-up fabrication, developed by Robert Wood, the Charles River Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences.Wood coauthored the paper and is a Core Faculty Member of the Wyss Institute. &nbsp;Previous pop-up manufacturing techniques &mdash; such as those used with the&nbsp;<a href="http://micro.seas.harvard.edu/research.html#flapping" target="_blank">Robobees</a> &mdash; rely on actuation methods that require high voltages or temperatures to operate, something that wouldn&rsquo;t be safe in a surgical tool directly manipulating biological tissues and organs.So, the team integrated soft actuators into the pop-up system.&nbsp;&ldquo;We found that by integrating soft fluidic microactuators into the rigid pop-up structures, we could create soft pop-up mechanisms that increased the performance of the actuators in terms of the force output and the predictability and controllability of the motion,&rdquo; said Sheila Russo, postdoctoral fellow at SEAS and Wyss and lead author of the paper. &ldquo;The idea behind this technology is basically to obtain the best of both worlds by combining soft robotic technologies with origami-inspired rigid structures. Using this fabrication method, we were able to design a device that can lie flat when the endoscope is navigating to the surgical area, and when the surgeon reaches the area they want to operate on, they can deploy a soft system that can safely and effectively interact with tissue.&rdquo;The soft actuators are powered by water. They are connected to the rigid components with an irreversible chemical bond, without the need of any adhesive. The team demonstrated the integration of simple capacitive sensing that can be used to measure forces applied to the tissue and to give the surgeon a sense of where the arm is and how it&rsquo;s moving. The fabrication method allows for bulk manufacturing, which is important for medical devices, and allows for increased levels of complexity for more sensing or actuation. Furthermore, all materials used are biocompatible. &nbsp;The arm is also equipped with a suction cup &mdash; inspired by octopus tentacles &mdash; to safely interact with tissue. The team tested the device ex vivo, simulating a complicated endoscopic procedure on pig tissue. The arm successfully manipulated the tissue safely.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1569906823020-ArmPigWeb.jpg" style="width: 688px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><div class="inline-image">Soft pop-up arm performing tissue counter-traction during an ex-vivo test on a porcine stomach (Image courtesy of Harvard University)</div>&ldquo;The ability to seamlessly integrate gentle yet effective actuation into millimeter-scale deployable mechanisms fits naturally with a host of surgical procedures,&rdquo; said Wood. &ldquo;We are focused on some of the more challenging endoscopic techniques where tool dexterity and sensor feedback are at a premium and can potentially make the difference between success and failure.&rdquo;The researchers demonstrated that the device could be scaled down to 1 millimeter, which would allow it to be used in even tighter endoscopic procedures, such as in lungs or the brain.Next, the researchers hope to test the device&nbsp;in vivo.&ldquo;Our technology paves the way to design and develop smaller, smarter, softer robots for biomedical applications,&rdquo; said Russo.

SEM images of the hybrid soft pop-up actuators. The image has been colored in post processing to differentiate between the soft (in yellow) and the rigid structure (in blue) (Image courtesy of the Wyss Institute at Harvard University)

Bioinspired approach combines pop-up fabrication with soft robotics

Smaller, smarter, softer robotic arm for endoscopic surgery

Soft robotics has made leaps and bounds over the last decade as researchers around the world have experimented with different materials and designs to allow once rigid, jerky machines to bend and flex in ways that mimic and can interact more naturally with living organisms. However, increased flexibility and dexterity has a trade-off of reduced strength, as softer materials are generally not as strong or resilient as inflexible ones, which limits their use.Now, researchers at the&nbsp;<a href="http://seas.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences</a> (SEAS), the <a href="http://wyss.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">Wyss Institute at Harvard University</a> and MIT&rsquo;s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have created origami-inspired artificial muscles that add strength to soft robots, allowing them to lift objects that are up to 1,000 times their own weight using only air or water pressure. The study will be published this week in&nbsp;<a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/11/21/1713450114.full" target="_blank">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a> (PNAS).&ldquo;We were very surprised by how strong the actuators [aka, &ldquo;muscles&rdquo;] were. We expected they&rsquo;d have a higher maximum functional weight than ordinary soft robots, but we didn&rsquo;t expect a thousand-fold increase. It&rsquo;s like giving these robots superpowers,&rdquo; said Daniela Rus, the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and one of the senior authors of the paper.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1569469584573-Origami-inspired+artificial+muscles+snake+arm.jpg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The movement and shape of the artificial muscles is defined by the shape of their internal &ldquo;skeleton&rdquo; &ndash; in this case, made of notched blocks of foam. (Image courtesy of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering)&nbsp;&ldquo;Artificial muscle-like actuators are one of the most important grand challenges in all of engineering,&rdquo; said <a href="https://www.seas.harvard.edu/directory/rjwood" target="_blank">Robert J. Wood</a>, corresponding author of the paper and&nbsp;the Charles River Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the SEAS. &ldquo;Now that we have created actuators with properties similar to natural muscle, we can imagine building almost any robot for almost any task.&rdquo; Wood is also a Founding Core Faculty member of the Wyss Institute.Each artificial muscle consists of an inner skeleton&nbsp;that can be made of various materials, such as a metal coil or a sheet of plastic folded into a certain pattern, surrounded by air or fluid and sealed inside a plastic or textile bag that serves as the skin.&nbsp;A vacuum applied to the inside of the bag initiates the muscle&rsquo;s movement by causing the skin to collapse onto the skeleton, creating tension that drives the motion. No other power source or human input is required to direct the muscle&rsquo;s movement; it is determined entirely by the shape and composition of the skeleton.&ldquo;One of the key aspects of these muscles is that they&rsquo;re programmable, in the sense that designing how the skeleton folds defines how the whole structure moves. You essentially get that motion for free, without the need for a control system,&rdquo; said first author Shuguang Li, a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Wyss Institute and MIT CSAIL. This approach allows the muscles to be very compact and simple, and thus more appropriate for mobile or body-mounted systems that cannot accommodate large or heavy machinery.&ldquo;When creating robots, one always has to ask, &lsquo;Where is the intelligence - is it in the body, or in the brain?&rsquo;&rdquo; said Rus. &ldquo;Incorporating intelligence into the body (via specific folding patterns, in the case of our actuators) has the potential to simplify the algorithms needed to direct the robot to achieve its goal. All these actuators have the same simple on/off switch, which their bodies then translate into a broad range of motions.&rdquo;The team constructed dozens of muscles using materials ranging from metal springs to packing foam to sheets of plastic, and experimented with different skeleton shapes to create muscles that can contract down to 10 percent of their original size, lift a delicate flower off the ground, and twist into a coil, all simply by sucking the air out of them.Not only can the artificial muscles move in many ways, they do so with impressive resilience. They can generate about six times more force per unit area than mammalian skeletal muscle can, and are also lightweight; a 2.6-gram muscle can lift a 3-kilogram object, which is the equivalent of a mallard duck lifting a car. Additionally, a single muscle can be constructed within ten minutes using materials that cost less than $1, making them cheap and easy to test and iterate.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1569469620868-Origami-inspired+artificial+muscles+white+muscle.jpg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The zig-zag pattern of this muscle&rsquo;s interior &ldquo;skeleton&rdquo; allows the muscle to contract down to a fraction of its original width. (Image courtesy of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering) These muscles can be powered by a vacuum, a feature that makes them safer than most of the other artificial muscles currently being tested. &ldquo;A lot of the applications of soft robots are human-centric, so of course it&rsquo;s important to think about safety,&rdquo; said Daniel Vogt, co-author of the paper and Research Engineer at the Wyss Institute. &ldquo;Vacuum-based muscles have a lower risk of rupture, failure, and damage, and they don&rsquo;t expand when they&rsquo;re operating, so you can integrate them into closer-fitting robots on the human body.&rdquo;&ldquo;In addition to their muscle-like properties, these soft actuators are highly scalable. We have built them at sizes ranging from a few millimeters up to a meter, and their performance holds up across the board,&rdquo; said Wood. This feature means that the muscles can be used in numerous applications at multiple scales, such as miniature surgical devices, wearable robotic exoskeletons, transformable architecture, deep-sea manipulators for research or construction, and large deployable structures for space exploration.The team was even able to construct the muscles out of the water-soluble polymer PVA, which opens the possibility of robots that can perform tasks in natural settings with minimal environmental impact, as well as ingestible robots that move to the proper place in the body and then dissolve to release a drug. &ldquo;The possibilities really are limitless. But the very next thing I would like to build with these muscles is an elephant robot with a trunk that can manipulate the world in ways that are as flexible and powerful as you see in real elephants,&rdquo; said Rus.

Origami-inspired artificial muscles are capable of lifting up to 1,000 times their own weight, simply by applying air or water pressure. (Image courtesy of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering)

Origami-inspired muscles are both soft and strong, and can be made for less than $1

Artificial muscles give soft robots superpowers

Even octopuses understand the importance of elbows. When these squishy, loose-limbed cephalopods need to make a precise movement &mdash; such as guiding food into their mouth &mdash; the muscles in their tentacles contract to create a temporary revolute joint. These joints limit the wobbliness of the arm, enabling more controlled movements. &nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="http://seas.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">Now, researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences</a> (SEAS) and the&nbsp;<a href="http://wyss.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering</a> have shown how a multi-layered structure can allow robots to mimic the octopus&rsquo;s kinematics, creating and eliminating joints on command. The structure can also allow robots to rapidly change their stiffness, damping, and dynamics.The research was published in two papers in&nbsp;<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adfm.201707136" target="_blank">Advanced Functional Materials</a> and&nbsp;<a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8141952/" target="_blank">IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters.</a>&ldquo;This research helps bridge the gap between soft robotics and traditional rigid robotics,&rdquo; said Yashraj Narang, first author of both studies and graduate student at SEAS. &ldquo;We believe that this class of technology may foster a new generation of machines and structures that cannot simply be classified as soft or rigid.&rdquo;<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1569465675108-artistRendering-640x278.jpg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><div class="inline-image">The structure consists of multiple layers of flexible material wrapped in a plastic envelope and connected to a vacuum source. (Image courtesy of Yashraj Narang/Harvard SEAS)</div>The structure is surprisingly simple, consisting of multiple layers of flexible material wrapped in a plastic envelope and connected to a vacuum source. Without vacuum, the structure behaves exactly as you would expect, bending, twisting and flopping without holding shape. But when a vacuum is applied, it becomes stiff and can hold arbitrary shapes, and it can be molded into additional forms.This transition is the result of a phenomenon called laminar jamming, in which the application of pressure creates friction that strongly couples a group of flexible materials.&ldquo;The frictional forces generated by the pressure act like glue,&rdquo; said Narang. &ldquo;We can control the stiffness, damping, kinematics, and dynamics of the structure by changing the number of layers, tuning the pressure applied to it, and adjusting the spacing between multiple stacks of layers.&rdquo;The research team, which also included&nbsp;<a href="https://www.seas.harvard.edu/directory/howe" target="_blank">Robert Howe</a>, the Abbott and James Lawrence Professor of Engineering,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.seas.harvard.edu/directory/jvlassak" target="_blank">Joost Vlassak</a>, the Abbott and James Lawrence Professor of Materials Engineering, and Alperen Degirmenci, a graduate student in SEAS, extensively modeled the mechanical behavior of laminar jamming to better control its capabilities.Next, they built real-world devices using the structures, including a two-fingered gripper that, without vacuum, could wrap around and hold onto large objects and, with a vacuum, could pinch and hold onto small objects about the size of a marble.<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ecTOd6O9Beg?&wmode=opaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" style="width: 767px; height: 466px;"></iframe> The researchers also demonstrated the structure&rsquo;s capabilities as shock absorbers by attaching them to a drone as landing gear. The team tuned the stiffness and damping of the structures to absorb the impact of landing.The structure is a proof-of-concept that could have many applications in the future, from surgical robots to wearable devices and flexible speakers.&ldquo;Our work has explained the phenomenon of laminar jamming and shown how it can provide robots with highly versatile mechanical behavior,&rdquo; said Howe, senior author of the paper. &ldquo;We believe that this technology will eventually lead to robots that can change state between soft, continuous devices that can safely interact with humans, and rigid, discrete devices that can meet the demands of industrial automation.&rdquo;

This drone’s landing gear is tuned the stiffness and damping to absorb the impact of landing. (Image courtesy of Yashraj Narang/Harvard SEAS) 

soft robotics

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