Mon 25 Nov 2024, 15:00-17:00
1-hour talk followed by networking
Lecture Theatre
London Institute for Healthcare Engineering
From Musculoskeletal Artificial Jumpers to Biohybrid Living Swimmers By Prof Robert Katzschman ETH Zurich
Living robots represent a new frontier in engineering materials for robotic systems, incorporating biological living cells and synthetic materials into their design. These biohybrid robots are dynamic and intelligent, potentially harnessing living matter’s capabilities, such as growth, regeneration, morphing, biodegradation, and environmental adaptation. Such attributes position biohybrid devices as a transformative force in robotics development, promising enhanced dexterity, adaptive behaviors, sustainable production, robust performance, and environmental stewardship. Nature’s musculoskeletal design can act as an inspiration for both artificial and living robots. We will explore recent advances in artificial electrohydraulic musculoskeletal robots, which employ electrohydraulic actuators to produce lifelike muscle contractions and adaptive motions, as demonstrated in our recent work published in Nature Communications. We will also discuss our advances in vision-controlled inkjet printing for robotics from our Nature paper, as well as xolographic biofabrication techniques for biohybrid swimmers presented at RoboSoft. I’ll also share insights from our computational optimization of musculoskeletal robotic hands featured at Humanoids. Together, these projects showcase some initial steps towards a future where musculoskeletal robots, biohybrid designs, and co-optimization techniques are opening new frontiers in robotics interaction and manipulation.