We’re starting a new project in October led by Nick Gravish at the University of California, San Diego. Together with Dan Aukes (Arizona State University) and Ross Hatton (Oregon State University), we will create and model soft robots that have virtual joints. In nature, some animals have limbs with nearly infinite degrees of freedom (elephant trunks, octopus tentacles), yet will fold their limbs at a few places to handle a specific task. In the mechanical world, a metal tape measure is an example of such a virtual joint. You can collapse it at any position. After collapse, it prefers to bend there, but you can snap it back later — making the joint disappear.
Our lab at U of Louisville will develop surface-curvature actuators that reconfigure a robotic limb to bend at specific locations. In a large-format version of our strain-engineered microstructures, we will use planar textile fabrication methods (sewing, embroidery) to incorporate the actuators into limbs.