LCSR Seminar: Ryan Sochol

Description

Ryan D. Sochol, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park, will give a talk titled "Games Without Frontiers: Beating Super Mario Bros. 1-1 with a 3D-Printed Soft Robotic Hand" for the Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics.

This is an online event; to attend, use the Zoom link on the LCSR event webpage.

Abstract:

Over the past decade, the field of "soft robotics" has established itself as uniquely suited for applications that would be difficult or impossible to realize using traditional, rigid-bodied robots. The reliance on compliant materials that are often actuated by fluidic (e.g., hydraulic or pneumatic) means presents a number of inherent benefits for soft robots, particularly in terms of safety for human-robot interactions and adaptability for manipulating complex and/or delicate objects. Unfortunately, progress has been impeded by broad challenges associated with controlling the underlying fluidics of such systems. In this seminar, Ryan D. Sochol will discuss how his Bioinspired Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory is leveraging the capabilities of two alternative types of additive manufacturing (or "three-dimensional (3D) printing") technologies to address these critical barriers. Specifically, Sochol will describe his lab's recent strategies for using the 3D nanoprinting approach, "Two-Photon Direct Laser Writing," and the inkjet 3D printing technique, "PolyJet 3D Printing," to engineer soft robotic systems that comprise integrated fluidic circuitry… including a soft robotic "hand" that plays Nintendo.

In addition to his faculty position in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sochol is affiliate faculty in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering and the Institute for Systems Research, an executive committee member at the Maryland Robotics Center, a Fischell Institute fellow at the Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices, all part of the James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park.