Soft Robotics
Most robots today are designed and built as dishwashers: a frame made of metal and plastic, a few sensors, motors, and a CPU. This is OK for many applications, but it can miss out the compliance and adaptability that soft materials could provide. We are interested in the study, design, and control of soft robotic technologies that amplify the sensory-motor capabilities and human interaction of robots without increasing their complexity and weight. For example, we work on smart soft grippers that manipulate complex objects without complex software, artificial feathers for agile drones, insect-inspired flexible compound eyes, variable stiffness materials, edible robots, foldable drones, modular tensegrity robots, and textile-based exoskeletons.
Related Publications
2025
Edible Pneumatic Battery for Sustained and Repeated Robot Actuation
Advanced Science. 2025. DOI : 10.1002/advs.202509350.Collision‐Resilient Winged Drones Enabled by Tensegrity Structures
Advanced Robotics Research. 2025. DOI : 10.1002/adrr.202500050.Edible aquatic robots with Marangoni propulsion
Nature Communications. 2025. Vol. 16. DOI : 10.1038/s41467-025-59559-8.Tensegrity-based Robot Leg Design with Variable Stiffness
2025. 8th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Soft Robotics, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2025-04-23 – 2025-04-27.Edible Jumpers Powered by Shell Snapping
Advanced Materials Technologies. 2025. Vol. 10, num. 8, p. 2401230. DOI : 10.1002/admt.202401230.Instant variable stiffness in cardiovascular catheters based on fiber jamming
Science Advances. 2025. Vol. 11, num. 6. DOI : 10.1126/sciadv.adn1207.Rapid and Continuous Stiffness Control of Fiber-Jamming Catheters for Cardiac Ablation
2025. 8th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Soft Robotics, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2025-04-23 – 2025-04-27.Evolutionary Codesign and Fabrication of Tensegrity Joints with Integrated Pneumatic Artificial Muscles
Advanced Intelligent Systems. 2025. DOI : 10.1002/aisy.202500310.2024
Adaptive morphing of wing and tail for stable, resilient, and energy-efficient flight of avian-inspired drones
npj Robotics. 2024. Vol. 2, num. 1. DOI : 10.1038/s44182-024-00015-y.Agile perching maneuvers in birds and morphing-wing drones
Nature Communications. 2024. Vol. 15. DOI : 10.1038/s41467-024-52369-4.Passive wing deployment and retraction in beetles and flapping microrobots
Nature. 2024. DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07755-9.Crash-perching on vertical poles with a hugging-wing robot
Communications Engineering. 2024. Vol. 3, num. 1. DOI : 10.1038/s44172-024-00241-0.Edible Soft Actuators based on Konjac Glucomannan for Underwater Operation
Advanced Intelligent Systems. 2024. Vol. 6, num. 5, p. 2300473. DOI : 10.1002/aisy.202300473.Fast-Response Variable-Stiffness Magnetic Catheters for Minimally Invasive Surgery
Advanced Science. 2024. Vol. 11, num. 12, p. 1 – 14. DOI : 10.1002/advs.202470069.Filiform Variable Stiffness Technologies for Medical Robotics
Lausanne, EPFL, 2024.A Sprayable Electrically Conductive Edible Coating for Piezoresistive Strain Sensing
Advanced Sensor Research. 2024. Vol. 3, num. 5, p. 2300150. DOI : 10.1002/adsr.202300150.Towards edible robots and robotic food
Nature Reviews Materials. 2024. p. online. DOI : 10.1038/s41578-024-00688-9.2023
Avian-Inspired Claws Enable Robot Perching or Walking
IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics. 2023. Vol. 29, num. 3, p. 1856 – 1866. DOI : 10.1109/TMECH.2023.3331357.A virtuous cycle between invertebrate and robotics research: perspective on a decade of Living Machines research
Bioinspiration and Biomimetics. 2023. Vol. 18, num. 3, p. 035005. DOI : 10.1088/1748-3190/acc223.A Soft Gripper with Granular Jamming and Electroadhesive Properties
Advanced Intelligent Systems. 2023. Vol. 5, num. 6, p. 2200409. DOI : 10.1002/aisy.202200409.Design and manufacture of edible microfluidic logic gates
2023. 2023 IEEE/RAS International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft), Singapore, April 3-7, 2023. DOI : 10.1109/RoboSoft55895.2023.10122039.2022
Electro-Adhesive Tubular Clutch for Variable-Stiffness Robots
2022. 2022 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Tokyo, Japan, October 23-27, 2022. p. 9628 – 9634. DOI : 10.1109/IROS47612.2022.9982098.Tales from a Robotic World. How Intelligent Machines Will Shape Our Future
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2022.A Lightweight Device for Energy Harvesting from Power Lines with a Fixed-Wing UAV
2022. International Conference on Unmanned Aircraft Systems (ICUAS 2022), Dubrovnik, Croatia, June 21-24, 2022. p. 86 – 93. DOI : 10.1109/ICUAS54217.2022.9836070.Dual Stiffness Tensegrity Platform for Resilient Robotics
Advanced Intelligent Systems. 2022. p. 2200025. DOI : 10.1002/aisy.202200025.Enhancement of Pressure-Sensitive Adhesive by CO2 Laser Treatment
Advanced Engineering Materials. 2022. num. 2200355. DOI : 10.1002/adem.202200355.Unleashing Soft Modular Robots by means of a Bio-inspired Connection Strategy
2022. 5th International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft), Edinburgh, Scotland, April 4-8, 2022. p. 553 – 558. DOI : 10.1109/RoboSoft54090.2022.9762069.A Variable Stiffness Magnetic Catheter Made of a Conductive Phase-Change Polymer for Minimally Invasive Surgery
Advanced Functional Materials. 2022. p. 1 – 11, 2107662. DOI : 10.1002/adfm.202107662.Towards edible drones for rescue missions: design and flight of nutritional wings
2022. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Kyoto, Japan, October 23-27, 2022. p. 1802 – 1809. DOI : 10.1109/IROS47612.2022.9981956.Arm-wrist haptic sleeve for drone teleoperation
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. 2022. Vol. 7, num. 4, p. 12054 – 12061. DOI : 10.1109/LRA.2021.3122107.Slip Anticipation for Grasping Deformable Objects Using a Soft Force Sensor
2022. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Kyoto, Japan, October 23-27, 2022. p. 10003 – 10008. DOI : 10.1109/IROS47612.2022.9981174.Model Predictive Control of Aerial Swarms
Lausanne, EPFL, 2022.Accurate Vision-based Flight with Fixed-Wing Drones
2022. International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2022), Kyoto, Japan, October 23-27, 2022. DOI : 10.1109/IROS47612.2022.9981921.2021
Robotic Elytra: Insect-Inspired Protective Wings for Resilient and Multi-Modal Drones
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. 2021. Vol. 7, num. 1, p. 223 – 230. DOI : 10.1109/LRA.2021.3123378.Smart Textiles that Teach: Fabric‐Based Haptic Device Improves the Rate of Motor Learning
Advanced Intelligent Systems. 2021. p. 2100043. DOI : 10.1002/aisy.202100043.Stretchable and Soft Electroadhesion Using Liquid‐Metal Subsurface Microelectrodes
Advanced Materials Technologies. 2021. p. 2100263. DOI : 10.1002/admt.202100263.Wearable Haptic Interfaces for Telerobotics
Lausanne, EPFL, 2021.Seeking Quality Diversity in Evolutionary Co-design of Morphology and Control of Soft Tensegrity Modular Robots
2021. The Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO 2021), Lille, France (virtual conference), July 10-14, 2021. DOI : 10.1145/3449639.3459311.Variable-Stiffness Tensegrity Modular Robots
Lausanne, EPFL, 2021.2020
Design Optimization of Soft Robots
Ieee Robotics & Automation Magazine. 2020. Vol. 27, num. 4, p. 10 – 11. DOI : 10.1109/MRA.2020.3028658.Lighter and Stronger: Cofabricated Electrodes and Variable Stiffness Elements in Dielectric Actuators
Advanced Intelligent Systems. 2020. Vol. 2, num. 10, p. 1 – 8, 2000069. DOI : 10.1002/aisy.202000069.Bio-Inspired Tensegrity Fish Robot
2020. 2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), virtual conference (originally Paris, France), 1-5 June 2020 (originally 31 May – 4 Jun). p. 2887 – 2892. DOI : 10.1109/ICRA40945.2020.9196675.A Morphing Cargo Drone for Safe Flight in Proximity of Humans
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. 2020. Vol. 5, num. 3, p. 4233 – 4240. DOI : 10.1109/LRA.2020.2993757.Variable-stiffness tensegrity spine
Smart Materials and Structures. 2020. Vol. 29, num. 7, p. 075013. DOI : 10.1088/1361-665X/ab87e0.Phase Changing Materials-Based Variable-Stiffness Tensegrity Structures
Soft Robotics. 2020. Vol. 7, num. 3, p. 362 – 369. DOI : 10.1089/soro.2019.0091.2019
Haptic feedback perception and learning with cable-driven guidance in exosuit teleoperation of a simulated drone
IEEE Transactions on Haptics. 2019. Vol. 12, num. 3, p. 375 – 385. DOI : 10.1109/TOH.2019.2925612.A Magnetic Continuum Device with Variable Stiffness for Minimally Invasive Surgery
Advanced Intelligent Systems. 2019. Vol. 2, num. 6, p. 1900086. DOI : 10.1002/aisy.201900086.Stretchable pumps for soft machines
Nature. 2019. Vol. 572, p. 516 – 519. DOI : 10.1038/s41586-019-1479-6.Soft haptic device to render the sensation of flying like a drone
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. 2019. Vol. 4, num. 3, p. 2524 – 2531. DOI : 10.1109/LRA.2019.2907432.Wearable Technologies for Embodied Human-Robot Interaction
Lausanne, EPFL, 2019.Embodied Flight with a Drone
2019. 2019 Third IEEE International Conference on Robotic Computing (IRC), Naples, Italy, February 25-27, 2019. DOI : 10.1109/IRC.2019.00070.2018
All‐Fabric Wearable Electroadhesive Clutch
Advanced Materials Technologies. 2018. Vol. 4, num. 2, p. 1800313. DOI : 10.1002/admt.201800313.Variable stiffness strip with strain sensing for wearable robotics
2018. 2018 IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft), Livorno, April 24-28, 2018. p. 485 – 490. DOI : 10.1109/ROBOSOFT.2018.8405373.Soft Biomimetic Fish Robot Made of Dielectric Elastomer Actuators
Soft Robotics. 2018. Vol. 5, num. 4, p. 466 – 474. DOI : 10.1089/soro.2017.0062.A Soft Robot for Random Exploration of Terrestrial Environments
2018. International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Brisbane, Australia, 21-25 May 2018. p. 7492 – 7497. DOI : 10.1109/ICRA.2018.8460667.Tesla’s problem: overestimating automation, underestimating humans
2018
Soft Robotic Grippers
Advanced Materials. 2018. Vol. 30, num. 29, p. 1707035. DOI : 10.1002/adma.201707035.A multi-modal hovering and terrestrial robot with adaptive morphology
2018. 2nd International Symposium on Aerial Robotics, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, June 11-12, 2018.Ultra-stretchable strain sensors using carbon black-filled elastomer composites and comparison of capacitive versus resistive sensors
Advanced Materials Technologies. 2018. Vol. 3, p. 1700284. DOI : 10.1002/admt.201700284.FlyJacket: An Upper Body Soft Exoskeleton for Immersive Drone Control
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. 2018. Vol. 3, num. 3, p. 2362 – 2369. DOI : 10.1109/LRA.2018.2810955.Haptic Guidance with a Soft Exoskeleton Reduces Error in Drone Teleoperation
2018. Eurohaptics 2018, Pisa, Italy, June 13-16 2018. p. 404 – 415. DOI : 10.1007/978-3-319-93399-3_35.Last-Centimeter Personal Drone Delivery: Field Deployment and User Interaction
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. 2018. Vol. 3, num. 4, p. 3813 – 3820. DOI : 10.1109/LRA.2018.2856282.Bioinspired dual-stiffness origami
Science Robotics. 2018. Vol. 3, num. 20, p. eaau0275. DOI : 10.1126/scirobotics.aau0275.Haptic Guidance with a Soft Exoskeleton Reduces Error in Drone Teleoperation
2018. 11th International Conference on Haptics – Science, Technology, and Applications (EuroHaptics), Pisa, ITALY, Jun 13-16, 2018. p. 404 – 415. DOI : 10.1007/978-3-319-93399-3_35.2017
Development of Bio-inspired Underwater Robot with Adaptive Morphology Capable of Multiple Swimming Modes
2017. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Vancouver, Canada, September 24–28, 2017. p. 4197 – 4202. DOI : 10.1109/IROS.2017.8206281.Soft Pneumatic Gelatin Actuator for Edible Robotics
2017. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Vancouver, Canada, September 24–28. p. 6221 – 6226. DOI : 10.1109/IROS.2017.8206525.Bio-inspired Tensegrity Soft Modular Robots
2017. Living Machines 2017, Palo Alto, California, USA, July 25-28, 2017. p. 497 – 508. DOI : 10.1007/978-3-319-63537-8_42.An origami-inspired cargo drone
2017. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Vancouver, September 24-28, 2017. p. 6855 – 6862. DOI : 10.1109/IROS.2017.8206607.A Variable Stiffness Catheter Controlled with an External Magnetic Field
2017. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Vancouver, BC, Canada, September 24–28, 2017. DOI : 10.1109/IROS.2017.8202155.Insect-Inspired Mechanical Resilience for Multicopters
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. 2017. Vol. 2, p. 1248 – 1255. DOI : 10.1109/LRA.2017.2658946.Foldable Drones: from Biology to Technology
2017. SPIE Bioinspiration, Biomimetics, and Bioreplication, Portland, Oregon, March 2017. p. 1016203 – 1. DOI : 10.1117/12.2259931.2016
Versatile soft grippers with intrinsic electroadhesion based on multifunctional polymer actuators
Advanced Materials. 2016. Vol. 28, num. 2, p. 231 – 238. DOI : 10.1002/adma.201504264.Biomimetic Underwater Robots Based on Dielectric Elastomer Actuators
2016. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Daejeon, Korea, October 9-14. p. 4957 – 4962. DOI : 10.1109/IROS.2016.7759728.Variable Stiffness Fiber with Self-Healing Capability
Advanced Materials. 2016. Vol. 28, num. 46, p. 10105. DOI : 10.1002/adma.201602580.Functional Soft Robotic Actuators Based on Dielectric Elastomers
Lausanne, EPFL, 2016.A Drone with Insect-Inspired Folding Wings
2016. 2016 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS, Daejeon, Korea, October 9-14, 2016. p. 1576 – 1581. DOI : 10.1109/IROS.2016.7759255.Adaptive Morphology: A Design Principle for Multimodal and Multifunctional Robots
IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine. 2016. Vol. 23, num. 3, p. 42 – 54. DOI : 10.1109/MRA.2016.2580593.2015
A small-scale hyperacute compound eye featuring active eye tremor: application to visual stabilization, target tracking, and short-range odometry
Bioinspiration & Biomimetics. 2015. Vol. 10, num. 2, p. 026002. DOI : 10.1088/1748-3190/10/2/026002.Variable Stiffness Actuator for Soft Robotics Using Dielectric Elastomer and Low-Melting-Point Alloy
2015. International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Hamburg, Germany, September 28 – October 02, 2015. p. 1097 – 1102. DOI : 10.1109/IROS.2015.7353507.DEA for soft robotics: 1-gram actuator picks up a 60-gram egg
2015. Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD), San Diego, March 2015. DOI : 10.1117/12.2084043.An artificial elementary eye with optic flow detection and compositional properties
Journal of the Royal Society Interface. 2015. Vol. 12, p. 20150414. DOI : 10.1098/rsif.2015.0414.A Foldable Antagonistic Actuator
IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics. 2015. Vol. 20, num. 5, p. 1997 – 2008. DOI : 10.1109/TMECH.2014.2359337.Viability evolutionary algorithms and applications to neuroscience and biology
Lausanne, EPFL, 2015.2014
Online Extreme Evolutionary Learning Machines
2014. Artificial Life 14: International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems, New York, NY, USA, July 30-August 2, 2014. p. 465 – 472. DOI : 10.7551/978-0-262-32621-6-ch076.Hardware Architecture and Cutting-Edge Assembly Process of a Tiny Curved Compound Eye
Sensors. 2014. Vol. 14, num. 11, p. 21702 – 21721. DOI : 10.3390/s141121702.Miniature artificial compound eyes for optic-flow-based robotic navigation
2014. Workshop on Information Optics WIO2014, Neuchatel, Switzerland, July 7-11, 2014. p. 1 – 3. DOI : 10.1109/WIO.2014.6933290.RoboGen: Robot Generation through Artificial Evolution
2014. Artificial Life 14: International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems, New York, NY, USA, July 30-August 2, 2014. p. 136 – 137. DOI : 10.7551/978-0-262-32621-6-ch022.Stretchable Electroadhesion for Soft Robots
2014. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Chicago, Illinois, USA, September 14-18, 2014. p. 3933 – 3938. DOI : 10.1109/IROS.2014.6943115.Soft Cells for Modular Robots
Lausanne, EPFL, 2014.Soft Cells for Programmable Self-Assembly of Robotic Modules
Soft Robotics. 2014. Vol. 1, num. 4, p. 239 – 245. DOI : 10.1089/soro.2014.0005.Programmable Self-assembly with Chained Soft Cells: An Algorithm to Fold into 2-D Shapes
2014. Simulation of Adaptive Behavior 2014, Castellón, Spain, July 22-26, 2014. p. 220 – 229. DOI : 10.1007/978-3-319-08864-8_21.2013
Dielectric Elastomer Actuators for soft-grasping
International Workshop on Soft Robotics and Morphological Computation, Centro Stefano Franscini (CSF), Monte Verità, Ascona, Switzerland, July 14-19, 2013.Soft Cell Simulator: A tool to study Soft Multi-Cellular Robots
2013. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics, Shenzhen, China, December 12-14, 2013. p. 1300 – 1305. DOI : 10.1109/ROBIO.2013.6739644.Beat-based synchronization and steering for groups of fixed-wing flying robots
2013. International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotics Systems, Lausanne, Switzerland, November 1-3, 2010. p. 281 – 293. DOI : 10.1007/978-3-642-32723-0_21.Euler Spring Collision Protection for Flying Robots
2013. International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Tokyo, Japan, November 3-7, 2013. p. 1886 – 1892. DOI : 10.1109/IROS.2013.6696606.VisionHat Development of a wearable collision alert system supported by flexible optic flow sensors
Lausanne, EPFL, 2013.Artificial muscles for soft robots
Festival de robotique.Beat-Based Synchronization and Steering for Groups of Fixed-Wing Flying Robots
2013. 10th International Symposium on Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems. p. 281 – 293. DOI : 10.1007/978-3-642-32723-0_21.Contact-based navigation for an autonomous flying robot
2013. International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), Tokyo, Japan, November 3-7, 2013. p. 3987 – 3992. DOI : 10.1109/IROS.2013.6696926.Effect of mechanical parameters on dielectric elastomer minimum energy structures
2013. Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD), San Diego, USA, March 10, 2013. DOI : 10.1117/12.2009368.A Perching Mechanism for Flying Robots Using a Fibre-Based Adhesive
2013. ICRA 13, Karlsruhe, May 6-7, 2013. p. 4433 – 4438. DOI : 10.1109/ICRA.2013.6631206.Variable stiffness material based on rigid low-melting-point-alloy-microstructures embedded in soft poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS)
RSC Advances. 2013. Vol. 3, num. 46, p. 24671 – 24679. DOI : 10.1039/c3ra44412k.Miniature curved artificial compound eyes
Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences Of The United States Of America (PNAS). 2013. Vol. 110, num. 23, p. 9332 – 9337. DOI : 10.1073/pnas.1219068110.Hyper-flexible 1-D shape sensor
2013. The 17th International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems, Barcelona, Spain, June 16-20, 2013. p. 1899 – 1902. DOI : 10.1109/Transducers.2013.6627163.2012
A soft robotic actuator using dielectric minimum energy structures
2nd International Conference on Electromechanically Active Polymer (EAP) transducers & artificial muscles, Potsdam (Berlin), Germany, May 29-30, 2012.Quantifying information transfer through a head attached vibrotactile display: principles for design and control
IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering. 2012. Vol. 59, num. 7, p. 2011 – 2018. DOI : 10.1109/TBME.2012.2196433.Vision Tape – a flexible compound vision sensor for motion detection and proximity estimation
IEEE Sensors Journal. 2012. Vol. 12, num. 5, p. 1131 – 1139. DOI : 10.1109/JSEN.2011.2166760.Contactless deflection sensing of concave and convex shapes assisted by soft mirrors
2012. IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2012, Vilamoura, Algarve, Portugal, October 7-12, 2012. p. 4810 – 4815. DOI : 10.1109/IROS.2012.6385505.An Active Connection Mechanism for Soft Modular Robots
Advanced Robotics. 2012. Vol. 26, num. 7, p. 785 – 798. DOI : 10.1163/156855312X626325.2011
Vision Tape – a novel class of flexible vision sensor for robots and humans
IEEE Swiss Image and Vision Sensors Workshop 2011 (SIVS 2011), Zurich, Switzerland, September 8, 2011.SleepPic. Hardware Developments for a Wearable On-line Sleep and Wake Discrimination System
2011. BIOSIGNALS 2011 – International Conference on Bio-inspired Systems and Signal Processing, Rome, Italy, January 26-29, 2011. p. 132 – 137.Method for fabricating an artificial compound eye
AT538406; EP2306230; WO2011039062; EP2306230.
2011.