PhD position in Soft Robotics – Creating functionality with nonlinear interconnections

interconnections

(ref. BAP-2023-107)

Last modification : Wednesday, March 1, 2023

The soft robotics research group, is the newest addition to the Department of Mechanical Engineering at KU Leuven. Our group focuses on exploring the intersection of soft robotics, mechanical instabilities and (micro)fabrication, where the greater goal is to create interactive soft robotic matter. We envision to embody functionality throughout the hardware of soft robots, to make them respond to environmental triggers without software control. Applications of this technology are widespread, ranging from surgical tools that navigate inside the body without collisions, to haptic interfaces for virtual and augmented reality. The aim of the group is to revolutionize the robotic world by introducing flexible materials in the design, going from hard to soft robots and from software to hardware intelligence.

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This PhD project will be part of the ERC starting grant of prof. Benjamin Gorissen, on building interactive fluidic state machines for soft robotics, called project ILUMIS.

About ILUMIS: Actuation, energy storage, sensing, and logic are four functionalities of both natural and artificial organisms, giving them the ability to thrive in their environment. As demonstrated in nature by the common octopus, the distribution of these four functionalities throughout the body creates a blueprint for autonomous and intelligent behavior. This concept of ‘functional embodiment' is currently non-existing in soft robotics. ILUMIS will create soft robots with embodied functionality by transitioning from a conventional robotic architecture to a fluidic network architecture. Further, by incorporating nonlinearities in all the network elements, the global system acts as a state machine, meaning that the output not only depends on the input, but also on its internal state. How to navigate this state space will be encoded within the nonlinearities, creating embodied intelligence. ILUMIS will overcome the main challenges of inverse design, where a desired behavior requires the optimization of a network of nonlinear structures. Thereby ILUMIS will create a new blueprint for soft robotic design with embodied functionality that closes the gap with nature's soft organisms.

This PhD project will focus on the interconnections inside this fluidic network. You will explore new ‘valve' designs that incorporate structural nonlinearities, model their behavior, and develop an inverse design framework to create functionality from these nonlinearities. Further, you will manufacture these novel design on the centimeter and millimeter scale, characterize their behavior, and create soft robots where the functionality originates form the passive interconnections.

The ideal candidate fulfils the following requirements:

ILUMIS A challenging research problem

For more information please contact Prof. dr. ir. Benjamin Gorissen through e-mail: [email protected]

To apply, use the KU Leuven online application platform (applications by email are not considered). Please include:

a) an academic CV and a PDF of your diplomas and transcript of course work and grades

b) a statement of research interests and career goals (max 2pages), indicating why you are interested in this position

c) a sample of technical writing, e.g. a paper with you as main author, or your master's thesis

d) A brief report (max 2 pages in PDF) covering your solution to the research problem that can be found here: https: // softroboticsgroup.files.wordpress.com/2023/02/a-challenging- problem.pdf

KU Leuven seeks to foster an environment where all talents can flourish, regardless of gender, age, cultural background, nationality or impairments. If you have any questions relating to accessibility or support, please contact us at [email protected]