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SUMMARY:Soft robots for delicate and effective interactions with humans: m
 ulti-scale soft biomedical robots
DTSTART:20170315T141500
DTEND:20170315T151500
DTSTAMP:20260406T193019Z
UID:9fd61e1d3967be001913b1baca210ef9e08addfd3421b889817f5d84
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr. Tommaso Ranzani\, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired
  Engineering\, Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied S
 ciences - USA\nSoft robots are constructed from compliant materials\, resu
 lting in machines that can safely interact with the natural environments. 
 Given their inherent compliance\, they are particularly suitable for explo
 ring and interacting with unstructured environments\, and manipulating so
 ft\, delicate\, and irregular objects. These properties make soft robots p
 articularly promising for biomedical applications\, such as wearable and m
 edical devices\, given the highly compliant and delicate structures of th
 e body. On the other hand\, the compliance of soft robots limits their abi
 lity to effectively apply forces on objects whose stiffness is comparable 
 to the one of the robot itself\, leading to the challenge of matching the
  compliance of soft devices with the environment or objects they will enco
 unter. During this talk\, I will describe progress in soft robotics and it
 s potential for revolutionizing biomedical devices.\n\nI will introduce a 
 soft manipulator inspired by the structure and the manipulation capabili
 ties of the octopus tentacle\, which is able to selectively tune its stiff
 ness to address the challenge of impedance matching. I will also introduce
  the potential of soft robotics at the millimeter and micrometer scales\,
  addressing the challenge of manufacturing complex meso-scale three-dimens
 ional soft structures using two-dimensional processes involving laser mach
 ining\, lamination\, and soft lithography. These manufacturing processes 
 could pave the way for soft microrobots as well as a new class of deployab
 le\, small\, and safe medical devices.\n\nBio: Tommaso Ranzani received th
 e Master’s degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Pisa\
 , Pisa\, Italy\, in 2010 and the Ph.D. degree in BioRobotics in 2014 at th
 e BioRobotics Institute\, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna\, Pontedera\, Italy
 . During his Ph.D.\, he explored soft robotic technologies to develop a bi
 oinspired manipulator\, which integrates design principles from biological
  systems for performing advanced procedures in minimally invasive surgery.
  He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Microrobotics Labora
 tory and at the Harvard Biodesign Laboratory working on different manufact
 uring paradigms\, materials\, and actuation technologies to develop novel 
 mm-scale robotic tools and structures able to overcome current challenges 
 in medicine and surgery. His research interests include soft and bioinspir
 ed robotics\, medical robotics and advanced manufacturing.\n \n 
LOCATION:ME B1 B10 https://plan.epfl.ch/theme/generalite_thm_v2?request_lo
 cale=fr&room=meb10&domain=places&dim_floor=1&lang=fr&dim_lang=fr&tree_grou
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STATUS:CONFIRMED
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