An Aragonese researcher coordinates a European project to train young researchers in materials for soft robotics
The Aragonese researcher Carlos Sánchez Somolinos, from the Institute of Nanoscience and Materials of Aragon (INMA) -a joint centre of the Spanish National Research Council and the University of Zaragoza- and member of CIBER-BBN, coordinates the European project European project STORM-BOTS, which aims to train 13 young researchers (three of them in Aragon) in the area of materials for soft robotics. The programme, funded by the European Commission with 3.5 million euros through the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions call, started on 1 January 2021 with the selection of the team of scientists and has a duration of four years, with the participation of 17 universities, research institutes, companies in the field of robotics and other institutions from Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Finland and Spain.
Covering aspects of chemistry, physics, materials science, advanced manufacturing and robotics, the STORM-BOTS network will provide 13 young researchers with scientific and technological training to boost soft robotics research based on liquid crystal elastomers in Europe. STORM-BOTS, which received 160 applications from early-stage researchers to be part of the project, also includes leaders from academia and major research institutions with unique scientific and technical expertise to provide the next generation of scientists and engineers with the best possible research environment to develop new materials and manufacturing tools to enable soft robotic functions. It is ultimately a transnational, comprehensive, highly integrated, multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral training programme. Through the network’s activities, students will learn the different facets of this cutting-edge research area, as well as a variety of relevant transversal skills necessary for their future careers. Broadly speaking, they will work on generating soft actuators that potentially enable robotic functions with applications in minimally invasive surgery or haptics (touch science), among other disciplines.
The incorporation of smart materials, which respond with a significant change in one of their physical properties in response to an external stimulus (such as heat, light or an electric or magnetic field) is an opportunity to develop new disruptive soft robotic elements and devices and can open up new possibilities in terms of designs, functions and responses that are inaccessible to conventional hard robots. “These consist of articulated rigid structures made of hard, usually metallic, materials that move in a controlled manner to perform different types of tasks. They can manipulate rigid and heavy objects with a high degree of precision, but they often fail when interacting with delicate or deformable objects, such as living tissues and organs, as control becomes extremely difficult, and this is one of the big challenges in robotics today,” explains Sánchez. “Smart materials can integrate sensing capability as well as large and controlled deformation in response to various stimuli that can be applied remotely without physical contact. Sensing and activation can be coupled in these soft robotic systems giving them a certain degree of autonomy, the material is the machine,” adds the researcher, who foresees that developments in this area could “revolutionise the fields of minimally invasive surgery, material handling, electronic skin and human-machine interfaces”.
In this scenario, Sánchez points out that liquid crystal elastomers are receiving increasing attention, as they exhibit large programmable mechanical deformations in response to different stimuli. “Europe has played a leading role in liquid crystal science since its inception. To be at the forefront also in the future, the goal of the STORM-BOTS network is to exploit the full potential of these liquid crystal materials in the implementation of signal receiving systems, soft actuators and smart machines,” he says.
About the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions
The Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions of the European Union’s Research and Innovation Framework Programme Horizon 2020 aim to ensure the optimal development and dynamic use of Europe’s intellectual capital in order to generate new capacities and innovation and thus realise its full potential across sectors and regions.
Within these Marie Sklodowska-Curie actions, the Innovative Training Networks (ITN) aim to train, through an international network of public and private centres, a new generation of creative and innovative researchers, capable of transforming knowledge and ideas into products and services for the economic and social benefit of the European Union. This modality allows the recruitment of young researchers (Early Stage Researchers – ESR: researchers who have not obtained a doctoral degree and are in their first 4 years of research).
Within the ITNs, the European Training Networks (ETN), such as STORM-BOTS, are networks of at least 3 centres established in 3 different countries of the EU27 or associated countries. A maximum of 15 pre-doctoral researchers (ESRs) can be recruited in these networks. In the TNCs, the participation of companies in the consortium is compulsory, especially SMEs, to ensure the researchers’ exposure to the industrial sector and, therefore, the broadest possible training to facilitate their future professional career in both academic and non-academic fields.
The ITN actions are called annually with a very high participation and very demanding success rates. 445 million, received 1,280 applications, of which only 114, i.e. 9%, have been awarded.
Photograph (from left to right: Erick Espindola, Paolo Sartori and Carlos Sanchez)
Link on Cordis of the European STORM-BOTS project
European STORM-BOTS project website
23/02/2022
