SPECIAL SESSION #09

Stanislao Grazioso

University of Naples Federico II, Italy

• stanislao.grazioso@unina.it

Teodorico Caporaso

University of Naples Federico II, Italy

• teodorico.caporaso@unina.it

Soft robotics refers to an emerging class of bioinspired robotic systems where purposefully induced compliant elements are embedded within their mechanical structure. This guarantees enhanced capabilities with respect to traditional rigid robots, namely safe manipulation of delicate objects, remote access in constrained environments, and intrinsic safety in human-robot and environment-robot interaction. Taking inspiration from biology and nature, soft robots have the unique potential of emulating their natural antitypes not only in terms of performance and capabilities, but also in terms of their ecological footprint.

This special session addresses the metrological and design challenges underlying the development of bioinspired and sustainable soft robots, considering the whole lifecycle from concept generation to operation, end of life, and beyond. In this context, metrology is intended along two complementary directions:

1. as a means of integrating and sensorizing soft robots, given the well-known difficulty of embedding sensors directly within a compliant body (e.g., pressure sensors for interaction forces, strain sensors for body deformation, tip-mounted cameras, and similar solutions);
2. as the soft robot itself acting as a measurement tool for constrained or inaccessible environments, for example, a soft growing robot equipped with a tip camera can be regarded as a special class of visual sensing system for confined spaces.

Particular attention is dedicated to applications in agri-food, manufacturing, healthcare (surgical and rehabilitation), and inspection and maintenance in nuclear, space, and water management domains. A further open challenge concerns the testing of soft robots: standardized methodologies for performance and sustainability assessment are still largely missing in the literature, and this session particularly welcomes contributions addressing this gap.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

• Design and prototyping of bioinspired and sustainable soft robots;
• Sensorization and embedded sensing for soft robotic bodies (pressure, strain, tip-mounted vision systems);
• Soft robots as measurement and inspection tools for constrained and inaccessible environments;
• Metrology, calibration, and characterization methods for soft robotic systems;
• Methodologies for performance and sustainability assessment of soft robots;
• Design optimization of soft robots for sustainability;
• Smart and flexible sensors for soft robotics;
• Design, modeling, and simulation of stiffening mechanisms;
• Soft robotic grippers;
• Soft articulated robots and soft continuum robots;
• Tendon-driven and pneumatically actuated soft exoskeletons;
• Soft robots at micro-scale;
• Modeling and control of soft robots;
• Human–soft robot interaction;
• Smart and active materials;
• Green aspects and life-cycle assessment in smart and actuated textiles;
• Actuation methodologies for augmented textiles;
• Applications in agri-food, manufacturing, healthcare (surgical and rehabilitation robotics), and inspection and maintenance for nuclear, space, and water management.

Stanislao Grazioso is Senior Assistant Professor (Ricercatore RTT) in Design Methods for Industrial Engineering at the University of Naples Federico II, Italy. He received his PhD in Industrial Engineering in 2017 with a thesis on geometric soft robotics, awarded the 2019 Georges Giralt PhD Award for the best European doctoral thesis in Robotics (euRobotics aisbl). He has held visiting research positions at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (UK), the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Maryland. He is Principal Investigator of the ASTRO Lab (Advancements in SofT RObotics) and a member of the IDEAS Joint Lab between the University of Naples and Fraunhofer IWU (Germany). His research focuses on the design, modeling, simulation, and control of soft and continuum robotic systems, digital twins, and physical AI, with applications spanning manufacturing, nuclear fusion remote handling, and healthcare. He has co-founded several spin-offs (Beyondshape, Eta Bioengineering, Herobots, Robosan) and has organized multiple special sessions on soft robotics at international conferences.

Teodorico Caporaso is Assistant Professor at the University of Naples Federico II, Italy, in the Department of Industrial Engineering, where he holds a PhD in Industrial Engineering. His research interests include wearable technology, sports engineering, and biomechanics, with a particular focus on smart and flexible sensors for human motion monitoring and on soft robotic systems for rehabilitation, including hand exoskeletons and EMG-based wearable devices. He has co-authored recent work on the design optimization of silicone-based pneumatic soft actuators for agri-food applications and on muscle-synergy-based wearable sensing systems, in collaboration with the other organizers of this session. He coordinates international initiatives on wearable technologies for sports and rehabilitation.