RI Seminar: Yong-Lae Park : Shaping the Body of Robots with Soft Skin and Muscles
Yong-Lae Park, a professor at Seoul National University, discusses soft robotic skin, muscles, and impact absorbing bodies, drawing on work at Carnegie Mellon, Harvard, and Seoul National University.
In this talk
- 2:52
Printing soft sensors
Park describes gallium-indium sensors in silicone that detect strain and pressure. His team developed a distance-sensing printer for curved surfaces, producing traces as narrow as 25 microns, and used thin-film evaporation to make skin-conforming sensors that can track finger motion.
- 11:00
Fewer wires and richer touch
To reduce wiring, Park’s team assigns sensors different resonant frequencies so an array can be read through one or two wires. They also combine optical, ionic-liquid, and conductive-fabric sensing in one structure to distinguish stretching, bending, and compression, then use those signals to control a robot.
- 22:39
Soft actuators with sensing and control
Park compares pneumatic artificial muscles with liquid crystal elastomer actuators that integrate position and force sensing, inspired by muscle spindles and Golgi tendon organs. For faster motion, his team built electromagnetic soft actuators that reach 15 hertz and electrostatic actuators with a sensor and clutch to help a robotic arm hold a load.
- 37:45
Wearable assistance and inflatable protection
A modular, all-metal actuator follows the back’s motion and helps with lifting that includes twisting and lateral movement. Park also describes inflatable sleeves with tactile sensors that cushion robot contact, protect a quadruped during falls, and help it float; one swimming robot traveled about 85 meters.
- 41:35
Toward bodies with skin, muscle, and fat
Park contrasts robots with biological bodies, which have hundreds of muscles and many tactile sensing elements, and argues for combining artificial muscles with varied shapes and functions. He presents inflatable structures as a mechanical equivalent of fat for impact absorption, alongside the sensing role of skin and movement provided by muscle.
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