Event

Abstract: Soft robots have the potential to adapt their morphology and behavioral control policy to changing tasks and environments. Inspired by the dynamic plasticity of living materials and general adaptability of animals, this talk will introduce several shape-shifting soft robot platforms—for example, robotic skins, robotic fabrics, and robots with morphing limbs—capable of editing their physical structure to perform a multiplicity of tasks or locomote across multiple environments. The talk will also cover the active material components—for example, stretchable electronics and computation, soft actuation, and variable stiffness materials—that enable predictable shape change. Harnessing these engineered materials and mechanisms gives access to a gamut of capabilities for increasingly adaptive robots.
 

Biography: Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio is the John J. Lee Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Yale University. Focusing on the intersection of materials, manufacturing, and robotics, her group is deriving new multifunctional materials that will allow next-generation robots to adapt their morphology and behavior to changing tasks and environments. She is the winner of multiple early career awards including the NSF Career Award, the NASA Early Career Award, the AFOSR Young Investigator Award, and the ONR Young Investigator Award. She was named to Forbes' “30 under 30” list for her approach to manufacturing liquid metals through printable emulsions and scalable sintering methods. She received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers, for her development of robotic skins that turn inanimate objects into multifunctional robots. She received the 2024 Alan T. Waterman Award, NSF’s highest honor for early-career scientists and engineers, “for groundbreaking contributions to robotics, particularly in advancing the understanding of how to design and build machines that evolve on demand.” She was named an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer in 2019, a National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Gilbreth Lecturer in 2022, and a National Academy of Science (NAS) Kavli Fellow in 2023. She serves as an Associate Editor of Soft Robotics and a Senior Editor of IJRR, and was General Chair of the IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft) in 2020 and 2021. She also serves on the Technology, Innovation & Engineering Committee of the NASA Advisory Council.