Soft and active materials for robots and wearables

1. Workshop Title Soft and active materials for robots and wearables 2. Organizers Rajat Chaudhary ([email protected]), Giacomo Moretti* ([email protected]) Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Trento, Trento, Italy. Yu Kuwajima ([email protected]), Vito Cacucciolo* (vito.cacuccio[email protected]) Department of Mechanics, Mathematics and Management, Polytechnic University of Bari, Bari, Italy. * Corresponding organizers 3. Workshop Format Oral presentations (5) delivered by invited speakers. Open submissions (8-10) for pitch/poster contributions 4. Workshop Objectives and Main Topics As robotics becomes more integrated into daily life, robotic systems and industrial machines are emerging in diverse forms. These include soft robots, which mimic living organisms, and wearable mechatronic devices that enhance human performance. Soft, compliant structures are expected to replace rigid mechanisms, while functional materials (e.g., electroor thermo-active) will increasingly serve as actuators and sensors, enabling more adaptive interactions with the environment. This workshop highlights recent advances in soft and wearable robotics using functional materials and smart structures, offering a platform for cross-disciplinary exchange among researchers in robotics, materials science, and electronics. Talks by emerging international researchers will present the latest findings in design, modeling, and control, complemented by poster presentations from students and early-career scientists. 5. Keywords Soft Actuators, Electroactive Transducers, Soft Robotics, Wearable Robotics, Textiles, Robotic Materials, Wearable Sensors 6. Preferred Date Saturday, 18th of October 7. List of Speakers Name Affiliation Tentative title Florian Hartmann Max Plank Institute for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart, DE Millimeter scale soft electrostatic actuators: From robots to wearables Gianluca Rizzello Dept. Systems Engineering, University of Saarland, Saarbruecken, DE Intelligent soft robots based on dielectric elastomers 2025 I-RIM Conference October 17-19, Rome, Italy ISBN: 9788894580570 10.5281/zenodo.17629622 28 Daniela Macari Max Plank Institute for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart, DE High-performance HASEL artificial muscles Simona Crea Biorobotics Institute, Scuola Sant’Anna, Pisa, IT Soft sensors for wearable applications Ozgun Kilic Afsar MIT Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US From Fiber to Function: Power-Dense Textile Muscles for Wearable Robot All invited speakers are confirmed. 8. Expected Number of Attendees Based on previous similar workshops we organized at RoboSoft, ICRA, etc., and considering that the conference mainly has a national audience, we expect between 30 and 50 attendees. 9. Target Audience Scientists working on Robotics, Wearable Robotics, or at the intersection among robotics, materials science and applied physics (e.g., soft active material developers) 10. Workshop Outcomes (E.g., publications, videos, special issues, future events.) The workshop is conceived to foster cross-contamination and exchange of knowledge between the Robotics and Wearable Robotics community on the one side, and the Electroactive Transducers and Material Science community on the other side. 11. Plan for Special Issue or Session We are not planning a special issue because we prefer to focus on in-person interactions that we believe is a more effective means of exchanging knowledge between different communities, which typically publish in different venues. We plan follow up actions such as the organization of a workshop with a similar topic and cut at a major international robotic conference (e.g., AIM 2026 in Genova, or ICRA 2026 in Vienna) 12. Call for Extended Abstracts We plan for an open call for posters that will be selected based on criteria such as novelty, relevance to the topic, and diversity 13. Workshop Webpage We are planning to prepare a simple website with all the information on the workshop and the call for posters, and embed a link to a Google form for submission. The site will be hosted on sites.google.com/unitn.it 14. Notes on Registration We plan to assign the 2 registration vouchers to early-career international invited speakers, to encourage diversity and international scientists engaging with the I-RIM community. 29