Softbotics

We are bringing robotics into everyday life by pioneering soft robotic materials and systems for motor assistance, teleoperation, interactive environments, and wearables. 

Softbotics

  • artistic wearable

    Wearables

    From sensorized artificial skin to stretchable electronics to prosthetic devices for robotic-assisted locomotion, our faculty are developing technologies for safe, minimally-restrictive human interaction.

    Faculty involved: Sarah Bergbreiter, Carmel Majidi, Burak Ozdoganlar, Victoria Webster-Wood, Inseung Kang, Trevor Jones, Eni Halilaj

     

  • close up of a jumping robot

    Bioinspired and biodegradable robots

     Faculty are taking inspiration from nature to identify how to combine living materials, protein-based materials, and engineered materials to build larger scale, self-sustaining bio-actuators; and understand how to keep these materials alive in a real-world environment.

    Faculty involved: Carmel Majidi, Vickie Webster-Wood, Reeja Jayan, Trevor Jones

    Learn more.... So tricky a robot can do it, Now printing: seaweed-based, biodegradable actuators

     

  • close up of tomatoes

    Liquid circuits and sensors

    Faculty are fabricating liquid metal-based soft and stretchable circuits that hold much potential for various applications because of their ideal physical and chemical properties.

    Faculty involved:Carmel Majidi, Burak Ozdoganlar, Trevor Jones

    Learn more...Scalable manufacturing unlocks potential of soft electronics

     

  • extinct animal as robot

    Paleobionics

    Paleobionics is a field aimed at using Softbotics, robotics with flexible electronics and soft materials, to understand the biomechanical factors that drove evolution using robot designs based on extinct.

    Faculty involved: Carmel Majidi, Phil LeDuc

    • People

    Learn who in Mechanical Engineering is working in Softbotics.

    Related news

    New moves for self-defense: How plants can inspire future Softbotic design Opens in new window

    Complex and sophisticated, a plant’s mechanical systems could be the key to more advanced biohybrid softbotic designs.

    450-million-year-old organism finds new life in Softbotics Opens in new window

    Researchers in the Department of Mechanical Engineering used fossil evidence to engineer a soft robotic replica of pleurocystitids, a marine organism that existed nearly 450 million years ago and is believed to be one of the first echinoderms capable of movement using a muscular stem.

    Scalable manufacturing unlocks potential of soft electronics Opens in new window

    New research from Burak Ozdoganlar, Carmel Majidi, and Kadri Burga Ozutemiz seeks to develop a scalable manufacturing method that combines the best of quality and quantity on a miniature scale, with the potential to reimagine how wearable medical devices are made.

    Engineering breakthrough in softbotics Opens in new window

    Introducing the first soft material that can maintain a high enough electrical conductivity to support power hungry devices.

    Scaling up the production of liquid metal circuits Opens in new window

    At Carnegie Mellon, mechanical engineering researchers have developed a new scalable and reproducible manufacturing technique that could accelerate the mainstream adoption and commercialization of soft and stretchable electronics.

    A cooler side to soft robotics Opens in new window

    Researchers combined liquid crystal elastomers with a thermoelectric device to develop a stretchable transducer for soft robotics.

    Resetting the standard in orthopedics Opens in new window

    Exoform, a customizable, semi-rigid material with self-fusing edges has the potential to eliminate many of the doctors visits that go along with broken bones, not to mention help them heal faster.

    A touch of silver Opens in new window

    Researchers in the Soft Machines Lab have developed a new silver-hydrogel composite for artificial skin that combines high electrical conductivity with soft, stretchable biocompatibility.

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