Sustainable Soft Aerial Robotics

About the Workshop

Soft aerial robotics has been pivotal in exploring design spaces to create highly adaptive airborne systems. By utilizing deformable structures, actuators, and sensors, these robots have achieved increased aerial versatility, multi-medium adaptability, and multi-functional performance. Over the past three years of this workshop series, we have explored soft material adaptations, modeling, and control strategies for designing soft aerial robots. Last year, our workshop series shifted focus to the very creatures that sparked our fascination with flight, concentrating on the study of flight in animals. We emphasized comparative biology and explored how developing robophysical models can aid in the study of these natural fliers. 

This year, our focus is twofold: first, to reunite the community to share recent innovations and advancements, and second, to redefine the idea of sustainable flight from the perspective of soft robotics. We plan to do this by bringing leading researchers in interdisciplinary fields, including ecologists and biologists. Our primary objectives are to identify ecological needs, evaluate technical and conceptual challenges, and uncover key opportunities for sustainable soft aerial robotics in real-world applications. Ultimately, we envision deploying these robots for monitoring, conservation, and intervention tasks to support climate change, environmental sustainability, and biodiversity. 

Date: April 23, 2025         Time: 8.10am-5.30pm                                     Venue:  Swiss Tech Conference Centre