Workshop description
Soft robotics is largely motivated by embodied intelligence, a well-known paradigm in robotics, which shifts the focus from the robot control system to the robot body and how it shapes sensory- motor behaviour, through interaction with the surrounding environment. Soft-bodied systems can use their complex internal structure to efficiently leverage physical interactions with the external environment and achieve the desired action. Modeling these internal and external interactions into a unified mathematical representation can lead to achieve controllable and programmable performance. The computational modeling challenge in soft robotics is considerable, as the range of morphologies (e.g., arms, fingers, legs, and fins), physics (e.g., materials, fluids, etc.), scales (from few mm to few m), abilities (e.g., reaching, grasping, walking, morphing, growing, swimming, jumping, crawling, and digging) and intended applications (e.g., healthcare, manufacturing, underwater sensing and manipulation, scientific exploration, entertainment, and more) is extremely diverse.
Prototype-driven design (also referred to as trial-and-error) was likely the fastest and most efficient way to proceed, especially in the exploratory phase. Today, we are at a stage where computational modeling within a model-driven umbrella can be achieved and can enable
- scaling up soft-robot design and control in response to application needs,
- replicating the behaviour of a soft robot by leveraging simulation and data-driven modeling, and
- a path towards soft-robot digital twins.
Indeed, we are at a stage where the field of soft robotics, after an impressive growth, faces the challenge of evolving into a well-rooted and principled scientific discipline that provides tangible societal benefits, thereby thriving over the next few decades. At the same time, computational modeling has progressed towards techniques and tools that make complex models and simulations affordable. For instance, computational modeling kept growing in the aerospace field, bringing a series of tangible breakthroughs that include the Apollo program and space flight, along with the exponential growth of civil aviation, and possibly space tourism. Is soft robotics at a stage similar to the “Apollo years”? Is the community going towards adopting a model-driven workflow for design and control, moving forward from prototype-driven approaches? We argue that this evolution can be achieved by a more pervasive use of computational mathematical modeling to describe internal and external interactions, and their coupling. This can lead to a flexible hierarchy of improved models, from high- to low-dimensional (or fundamental models) that can thoroughly capture embodied intelligence and can be used for design and control purposes.
It is not surprising that interdisciplinary efforts are required. Modeling and computational techniques that are used in other sectors can be applied in soft robots, with mutual benefit for soft robotics progress and research opportunities for a range of communities, including applied mathematics, computer science, and computational physics, to name a few. This workshop aims at posing provocative questions on the main challenges involved in modelling soft robots and their interactions, at reaching out towards a wider scientific community, at discussing the techniques available and at outlining the perspectives for further research and progress of the field.