MEAM Seminar: “Modularity Strategies for Pneumatic Control in Soft Robotic Systems”

Soft robotic systems, defined as both compliant robotic platforms and mechanically adaptive structures, offer unique advantages such as safe human-machine interaction, structural flexibility, and environment-driven reconfigurability. By relying on deformable materials and embedded physical intelligence, these systems can achieve complex motions and responsive behaviors that are difficult for conventional rigid robots. Pneumatic control, including actuation, sensing, and logic, has emerged as a powerful strategy in soft robotics due to its simplicity, rapid response, and compatibility with soft materials. However, once fabricated, traditional pneumatic systems are typically tailored to perform specific tasks and lack the reconfigurability needed for broader adaptability.

This seminar introduces modularity strategies for pneumatic control in soft robotic systems. I will present three representative projects: stimuli-responsive pneumatic valves for autonomous environmental interaction, a modular actuator framework for task-specific motion and sensing, and a pneumatically tunable lattice for structural adaptation. Together, these works highlight how modularity enables pneumatic control across diverse functional domains, supporting reconfigurability, environmental adaptability, and stimulus responsiveness. The talk will also outline ongoing research in small-scale actuator fabrication, passive timing control, and the design of simplified logic valves within modular pneumatic systems.