ROBOTICS SEMINAR Speaker: Michelle Yuen Title: Soft robots enabled by functional materials Day: Wednesday, March 30, 2022 Time: 10:45-11:45am Location: Friend Center Convocation Room (FC113) Host: Naveen Verma Abstract: Soft robots have the potential to extend the capabilities currently demonstrated within the field of robotics. By utilizing primarily soft materials in their construction, soft robots are inherently safe to operate around humans, can handle delicate tasks without advanced controls, and are robust to shocks and impacts during deployment. While proof-of-concept devices have been demonstrated successfully, there remains a need for widely applicable, reliable soft robotic components. In this talk, I will present my work on enabling technologies for soft robotic systems and, more broadly, deformable electromechanical systems. Specifically, I will discuss 1) high-deformation strain sensors for state reconstruction and closed-loop control of soft robots, 2) responsive structures enabled by variable-stiffness materials that can switch reversibly from flexible to stiff, and 3) stretchable electronics fabricated using room-temperature liquid metals. These devices rely upon functional materials – materials that have a useful, intrinsic property (e.g., conductivity, thermal-responsiveness) – that can be leveraged for robotic needs. Throughout this talk, I will be highlighting the need for co-developed design, materials selection, and manufacturing processes to produce reliable devices that can be fabricated at scale. The work presented in this talk illustrates a path toward building deformable electromechanical systems that are adaptable and versatile by leveraging functional multi-material systems. Bio: Michelle C. Yuen is a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the Harvard Microrobotics Lab. She received her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University in 2018, following a B.S. in Biological Systems Engineering from University of California, Davis in 2013. During her Ph.D. studies, she worked on the design, materials, and manufacturing methods for soft robotic components and systems, and was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. She was then awarded a Research Associateship from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine to work on next-generation stretchable electronic devices at the Air Force Research Laboratory. Currently, her work leverages her expertise in soft materials manipulation to discovering advanced adhesion strategies for wet, rough surfaces toward applications in marine mammal tagging.