Science Pub: Soft Robotics

Join our fun and friendly conversation, and quench your thirst for knowledge about science and nature. No tickets or reservations required, but be sure to get to Dargan’s early for a seat and to order your favorite drink and food. At Dargan’s Irish Pub & Restaurant, 18 E. Ortega Street. FREE admission.

Natural systems, such as climbing geckos and wandering vines, are incredibly robust, adaptable, and capable of handling uncertainty in their environments. These traits are unfortunately not currently true about engineered robotic systems. Join Dr. Elliot W. Hawkes, UCSB Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, as he shows and tells how the design principles of nature can be leveraged to advance the state-of-the-art in engineering. He will discuss efforts to learn from nature by incorporating compliance, or softness, into robots to create new functionality, including gecko-inspired adhesives that allow a human to climb a glass wall and vine-inspired robots that “grow” through challenging environments, such as a forest of nails.