Call for 2019 IEEE-RAS Best Paper Award in Model-Based Optimization for Robotics

Call for 2019 IEEE-RAS Best Paper Award in Model-Based Optimization for Robotics We are pleased to announce the call for nominations for the 2019 TC Best Paper Award in Model-Based Optimization for Robotics. We anticipate winners of this newly established award being announced yearly in conjunction with TC events at ICRA. Eligible papers for this year’s award will have appeared at a conference or in a journal in 2019. We encourage TC members and community members to nominate their favorite papers of the past year (including their own!). Nominations should be sent to the TC Co-Chairs at [email protected] by 15 May 2020 and accompanied by a short motivation (150 words max) for the nomination. TC CoChairs will collect nominations, and a separate awards committee will evaluate finalists. Finalists and winners will be selected based on factors of novelty, quality, and impact. Selfnominations are encouraged but should be limited to one per individual. Timeline: Call for nominations: 18 February 2020 Nominations Due: 15 May 2020 [self-nominations encouraged] Finalists Announced: 1 June 2020 Winners Announced: 30 June 2020

Registration for RoboSoft 2020 is Now Open

6-9 April 2020 | Yale University | Connecticut, USA Registration for RoboSoft 2020 is now open. The goal of RoboSoft is to bring together the soft robotics community to present and discuss recent innovations across disciplines and foster collective advancement of the field. Early-bird Registration available through 1 March 2020. Registration closes 22 March 2020. Click here to register! http://robosoft2020.org/ This is a Fully Sponsored RAS Conference

Soft Robotics January 2020 Newsletter

Highlighted News * Registration for RoboSoft 2020 is now open. Early-bird Registration available through March 1, registration closes March 22. * February issue of Soft Robotics is already online * The most updated podcast episodes are available here. New Videos * MakeSense: Automated sensor design for proprioceptive soft robots (Jan 2020) * Superpick polybagpicking system from soft robotics (Soft Robotics Inc., Jan 2020) Published Journal * Related view and review: A vision for future bioinspired and biohybrid robots (Sci. Robot, Jan 2020) Metal or muscle? The future of biologically inspired robots (Sci. Robot, Jan 2020) * Soft arm, manipulation, grasping: Model-based dynamic feedback control of a planar soft robot: trajectory tracking and interaction with the environment (Int. J. Robot. Res., Dec 2020) On an improved state parametrization for soft robots with piecewise constant curvature and its use in model based control (IEEE RA-L, Jan 2020) A haptic continuum interface for the teleoperation of extensible continuum manipulators (IEEE RA-L, Jan 2020) TMTDyn: A Matlab package for modeling and control of hybrid rigid–continuum robots based on discretized lumped system and reduced order models (Int. J. Robot. Res., Jan 2020) Online disturbance estimation for improving kinematic accuracy in continuum manipulators (IEEE RA-L, Jan 2020) A soft gripper with programmable effective length, tactile and curvature sensory feedback (Smart. Mater. Struct., Jan 2020) Complex multiphase organohydrogels with programmable mechanics toward adaptive soft-matter machines (Sci. Adv., Jan 2020) * Soft locomotion, compliant locomotion: Toward a gecko-inspired, climbing soft robot (Front. Neurorobotics, Dec 2019) An autonomous untethered fast soft robotic insect driven by low-voltage dielectric elastomer actuators (Sci. Robot., Dec 2019) Confined spaces path following for cable-driven snake robots with prediction lookup and interpolation algorithms (Sci. China Technol. Sci., Dec 2019) A lightweight simulation model for soft robot’s locomotion and its application to trajectory optimization (IEEE RA-L, Jan 2020) * Soft sensing, artificial skin, electronic skin: Towards FBG-based shape sensing for micro-scale and meso-scale continuum robots with large deflection (IEEE RA-L, Jan 2020) Future trends in instrumentation and measurement: Indirect sensing in soft robots using observers/filters (IEEE Instru. Meas. Mag., Feb 2020) An ambient-stable and stretchable ionic skin with multimodal sensation (Mater. Horiz., Feb 2020) Stiffness imaging with a continuum appendage: Real-time shape and tip force estimation from base load readings (IEEE RA-L, Feb 2020) * Soft actuator, flexible actuator, compliant actuator: Autonomic perspiration in 3D-printed hydrogel actuators (Sci. Robot, Jan 2020) Electrically-driven soft fluidic actuators combining stretchable pumps with thin McKibben muscles (Front. Robot. AI., Jan 2020) * Soft robot application: Design, modeling, and evaluation of fabric-based pneumatic actuators for soft wearable assistive gloves (Soft Robotics, Jan 2020) Improving the performance of industrial machines with variable stiffness springs (Mech. Based Des. Struc., Jan 2020) * Embodied intelligence, morphological computation, morphological change, growing robots: Quasi-static modeling of a novel growing soft-continuum robot (Int. J. Robot. Res., Dec 2019) Bio-inspired active skins for surface morphing (Sci. Rep., Dec 2019) Retraction of soft growing robots without buckling (IEEE RA-L, Jan 2020) A scalable pipeline for designing reconfigurable organisms (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., Jan 2020) Large-scale automated investigation of free-falling paper shapes via iterative physical experimentation (Nat. Mach. Intell., Jan 2020) Complex multiphase organohydrogels with programmable mechanics toward adaptive soft-matter machines (Sci. Adv., Jan 2020) Variable stiffness morphing limb for amphibious legged robots inspired by chelonian environmental adaptations (Bioinspir. Biomim., Feb 2020) * Soft matter electronics, stretchable electronics: Lighting up soft robotics (Nat. Mater., Dec 2019) Reconfigurable and programmable origami dielectric elastomer actuators with 3D shape morphing and emissive architectures (NPG Asia Mater., Dec 2019) Popular Articles Soft skin-like robots you can put in your pocket (Science Daily, Dec 2019) Smash this robot (IEEE Spectrum, Dec 2019) A research team builds robots from living cells (The Economist, Jan 2020) First ‘living robots’ designed on supercomputer (The Guardian, Jan 2020) Scientists create a robot made entirely of living cells (CBC.Ca, Jan 2020) Meet Xenobot, an eerie new kind of programmable organism (Wired.com, Jan 2020) Scientists assemble frog stem cells into first ‘living machines’ (Smithsonian Mag., Jan 2020) Soft robot fingers sweat to cool themselves (IEEE Spectrum, Jan 2020) High-speed chameleon tongue redefines soft robots (ASME.org, Jan 2020) For more details- http://softrobotics.org/newsletters/january-2020/

RAS Student Chapter in Brazil Starts Reading Group

The recently-founded Robotics and Automation Society (RAS) Chapter from São Carlos School of Engineering, University of São Paulo (EESC-USP), Brazil, organized starting from 18 September until 27 November the Robotics and Automation Reading Group.