ETF Robotics students attended ETH Summer School on Soft Robotics (Zurich, Switzerland; 18-22 June 2012).
The lectures were distinguished professors and researchers from ETH, Carnegie Mellon University, Tallinn University of Technology, EPFL, Tufts University, Oxford, Bristol Robotics Laboratory, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Nagoya University, German DLR Institute, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, while the laboratory exercises were provided by organizers – Bio-inspired Robotics Lab and Rehabilitation Engineering Lab at ETH.
Soft robotics is an emerging field of research that tries to overcome limitations of the current robotic systems by the use of soft or compliant elements. A variety of approaches how to introduce soft robotic principles are presented: use of smart materials, bio-inspired principles in technical applications, sensors and actuators with variable stiffness. More details are available at: ETH Summer School on Soft Robotics.