Presentation - Reconfigurable Robots for Real Intuitive Interactions

A truly ubiquitous environment is where human-machine interactions are intuitive, reliable, and compatible. This requires an intelligent platform that is versatile and adaptable to evolving tasks and dynamic environments. While there are extensive efforts in addressing this challenge through massive data and learning algorithms, there is yet to be a cohesive solution to improve the actual physical interactions. Recent developments in soft robots with their unconventional material-based solutions and modular robots with a multitude of configurations propose possible avenues to extend the capacities of robotics. This talk will highlight the recent progress in soft-material robots and reconfigurable origami robots that aim at achieving comprehensive solutions toward diverse "softer" human-robot applications.

Biography

Prof. Jamie Paik is director and founder of Reconfigurable Robotics Lab (RRL) of Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) and a core member of Swiss National Centers of Competence in Research (NCCR) Robotics consortium. RRL’s research leverages expertise in design and advanced manufacturing toward reconfigurable robotic platforms that push the physical limits of material and mechanisms. Her latest research effort is in soft robotics and self-morphing Robogami (robotic origami). Robogami transforms autonomously its planar shape to 2D or 3D by folding just like the paper art, origami. Soft material robots and robogamis are designed to be interactive with the users and their environments through both innate and active reconfigurations. Such characteristics of the RRL’s robots have direct applications in medical, automobile, space, communication, and wearable robots. While this novel technology has been published in multiple academic journals such as in Soft Robotics Journal, IEEE Transactions in Robotics, Nature, and Science, RRL’s spin-offs, MIROS and Foldaway-Haptics, have pushed the boundaries of the industrial applications of these robots as seen in TED conference 2019. The latest robogami is part of Mercedez’s 2020 concept car, Avatar, presented during CES 2020, and MIROS in CES 2023.