Fall 2023 GRASP SFI: Robert Baines, ETH Zürich, “Material system design for predictable shape-morphing robots”

This was a hybrid event with in-person attendance in Levine 307 and virtual attendance. This week’s speaker was virtual. 

ABSTRACT

Robots are traditionally designed with immutable physical hardware and control policies that make them specialized for repetitive, structured tasks and environments. This talk presents work toward robots that actively change shape to accomplish a variety of tasks in diverse environments. Shape-changing robots are pursued at two levels. First, I will discuss the design and modeling of shape-morphing components, including variable stiffness materials and variable-trajectory soft actuators. Component-level analysis leads to insight into how actively tunable stiffness differentials can yield myriad deformations. Inverse models that recapitulate shape-morphing components’ highly nonlinear geometric and material behavior allow for systematic mechanical programming of shape-morphing robotic function. These foundational studies inform the second part of the talk, in which I will discuss how shape-morphing components are applied to create an adaptive amphibious quadruped robot. Harnessing active stiffness-tuning materials, the robot features limbs that switch between programmed shapes for effective propulsion in multiple environments. The robot testifies to the efficacy of “adaptive morphogenesis,” a design strategy that leverages shape-morphing and gait adaptability to improve performance across multiple environments.