About the project
Robots are today directly or indirectly a part of most humansʼ lives; they clean houses, move and process biological material for the food industry, help increase the quality of life of elderly and sort waste material intended for recycling, to name but a few examples. The technological solutions for both conventional and soft-roboics rely on direct physical contact to enable adhesion and locomotion, perhaps the to two most fundamental modalities in robotics. In this project, we will develop a sustainable non-contact robot by utilising vibration induced lubrication, allowing detailed control over adhesion and locomotion without the need for direct physical contact. The project will explore the use of sustainable and bio-degradable materials for the robot and our work is embedded in a Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) framework, including a life cycle assessment. If successful, the project will reveal fundamental principles in soft robotics to enable adhesion and locomotion without physical contact as well as guidelines for the potential use of sustainable materials.
