RoboSoft 2026 Workshop, April 7th Morning, Hotel Kanazawa.
Soft robots excel at safe interaction and adaptability, but the inherent compliance often limits their speed or power. This workshop aims to address this challenge by exploring how soft actuators and mechanisms can be engineered to deliver fast, impulsive, and high-energy motion without compromising safety or resilience.
Hiromi Mochiyama
University of Tsukuba, Japan
Je-sung Koh
POSTECH, South Korea
Johannes T. B. Overvelde
AMOLF, Netherlands
Siyi Xu
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA
Cameron Aubin
University of Michigan, USA
Zeynep Temel
Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Robert Katzschmann
ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Fumiya Iida
University of Cambridge, UK and the University of Tokyo, Japan
| Time | Session |
|---|---|
| 09:00 - 09:10 | Opening Remarks |
| 09:10 - 09:25 | Hiromi Mochiyama – Snap Motor: Impulsive force generators created through soft robotics |
| 09:25-09:40 | Je-sung Koh – Mechanical Intelligence-based biologically inspired micro robots and its applications |
| 09:40-09:55 | Johannes T. B. Overvelde – Nonlinear mechanical approaches to physically control soft-yet-fast machines |
| 09:55-10:10 | Siyi Xu – Soft dielectric elastomer actuators |
| 10:10-10:45 | Coffee Break & Interactive Session |
| 10:45-11:00 | Cameron Aubin – From microexplosions to motion: Mechanical transducers for dynamic actuation in soft robots |
| 11:00-11:15 | Zeynep Temel – Impulsive jumping by SMA |
| 11:15-11:30 | Robert Katzschmann – HASEL actuator, bio-hybrid system |
| 11:30-11:45 | Fumiya Iida – Robots with embodied intelligence |
| 11:45-12:05 | Panel Discussion |
| 12:05-12:20 | Q&A |
| 12:20 | Closing Remarks |
We invite poster submissions and live demonstrations from all relevant fields within our topics of interest, specifically focusing on fast and impulsive soft robots. Here's how you can contribute:
If you opt to submit a poster, you are indicating your intention to bring a physical poster to the conference, and give a 2-minute teaser talk in the interactive presentation session. Several awards will be awarded to the most novel and impactful presentations. The poster should should be A0 size and vertical.
Live demonstrations are particularly welcomed through video submissions. The video should be no longer than 2 minutes, and the space for the demonstration should be no larger than 4 m × 4 m. Each presenter will have a 2-minute teaser talk, and will also be awarded for the outstanding presentation.
Deadline: March 22nd, 2026 | Notification: March 29th, 2026
In case of a technical difficulty related to the submission through the system via the channel above, you may directly email us your submission at: ruoyu@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn
Pakpong Chirarattananon
University of Toronto, Canada
Kevin Chen
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Moju Zhao
The University of Tokyo, Japan
Shuguang Li
Tsinghua University, China
Siyi Xu
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Ruoyu Feng
Tsinghua University, China