RoboSoft22: The 5th edition of the international conference on Soft robotics is the first dedicated to our planet’s health

Genova (Italy) /Edinburgh (Scotland), 30 March 2022 – The development of soft robots with low environmental impact and the ability to safeguard the earth, improve healthcare, and increase quality of life is the focus of the 5th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Soft Robotics “RoboSoft”, which will be held from 4^th to 8^th April, 2022, hosted at The University of Edinburgh in a hybrid in-person and online event. The RoboSoft conference will gather scientists from all over the world to discuss the design, development, and application of “green” soft robotic systems. “Soft Robots for the Planet” is the theme of this conference, which is jointly chaired by Dr Barbara Mazzolai, Associate Director for Robotics at IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology), and Dr Adam Stokes, Director Soft Systems Group at The University of Edinburgh.

Contemporary roboticists are posing questions about the impact of technologies on the environment and, at the same time, asking how they may contribute to help with pollution, climate change and future well-being of our Planet. The Robosoft 2022 Conference aims to address these issues by engaging with the international community who are already working on robotics systems that take inspiration from nature. The number of publications and workshops submitted by the soft robotics community to the conference is higher than in previous editions, and this increase demonstrates the growing global interest both in soft robotics and in sustainability.

Examples of some of the solutions that will be presented at Robosoft22 Conference are: reducing the ever increasing amount of e-waste through the study of recyclable materials and renewable energy solutions to power robots; and conceiving new adaptable and re-shapeable robotic soft structures learning from living beings.

“This year, we chose environmental sustainability as RoboSoft’s main theme to remind us of the importance of our work as scientists for reducing the impact of technologies on our planet, and at the same time, the fact that the bioinspired approach may lead to new solutions to be transferred into different applications, from health to architecture” comments Dr Barbara Mazzolai. “I want to thank the IEEE RAS RoboSoft Committee for having accepted our proposal and the international scientific community for responding to the call”.

“It is a great pleasure to lead the organization of this international conference alongside our Italian colleagues. Both Italy and Scotland have a global reputation for ground-breaking research on robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) and RoboSoft22 will showcase these novel ideas and technologies on the world stage.” comments Dr Adam Stokes. “The University of Edinburgh is pleased to welcome the global soft robotics community to this event, whether they are attending in-person or online.”  

The main conference program includes six plenary lectures alternated with 12 technical sessions of oral presentations and 6 poster sessions. A full day of 11 thematic workshops and tutorials, and a day dedicated to soft robots competitions will open and close the week. Social and networking events will take place throughout the week for both in-person and online attendees.

The plenary speakers are Dr Katia Bertoldi, William and Ami Kuan Danoff Professor of Applied Mechanics at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; Dr Josh Bongard, Veinott Professor of Computer Science at the University of Vermont and Director of the Morphology, Evolution & Cognition Laboratory; Dr Robert Shepherd, Associate Professor at Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University; Dr Telmo Pievani, Professor of Philosophy of Biological Sciences at University of Padua; Dr Thomas Speck, Professor for ‘Botany: Functional Morphology and Biomimetics’ and Director of the Botanic Garden, University of Freiburg; and Dr Barbara Webb, Professor of Biorobotics and Director of Insect Robotics Group at Edinburgh University.

The RoboSoft competition will be held on the last day of the conference in the impressive McEwan Hall where international teams will test the ability of their robotic systems to perform complex manipulation tasks and in locomotion tasks over a challenging obstacle course.

Two Science Café events have been also organized as informal panel discussions among a small group of researchers moderated by a scientific journalist and open to a generic audience. The debate during the events will focus on the research trends and the applications of soft robots for the planet and on the opportunities and the challenges for the market of soft robots.

The event is sponsored by Facebook/Meta Reality Labs, The National Robotarium, The Robotics Superlab, TouchLab, Bioliberty, Cyberdyne, the two EU-funded projects I-Seed and GrowBot (coordinated by IIT), Science Robotics and MDPI Machines, Crover, Inkbit3d, Fluidic Logic and an ever growing list of both global tech companies and new disruptive start-ups. These companies will have both online and physical exhibition booths and their presence at the conference demonstrates the maturity of the field – Soft Robotics is redefining how we think about the materials that are used to build systems, the way in which we interact with robotic machines, and the tasks that robots can be deployed to perform.

Website: https://softroboticsconference.org/