“Materials, Actuators, and Sensors for soft Robotic Hands” By Thassyo Pinto, PhD, postdoctoral fellow at the City College of New York

Abstract: Various robotic hands, gloves, and grippers have been developed for manufacturing, prosthetics, and rehabilitation. However, the use of rigid links and joints presents challenges in control and safe interactions with humans. The emerging field of soft robotics seeks to create machines that are soft, compliant, and capable of withstanding damage, wear and high stress. This seminar will focus on the advancement of soft actuators, soft sensors, and perception for ultimately realizing proprioceptive grasping with soft robotic hands. Also, it will cover the design and fabrication of several types of soft pneumatic actuators (SPAs) with stiffness tuning and shape modulation capabilities, carbon nanotube (CNT)-based flexible sensor arrays integrated to SPAs for providing distributed strain measurements, and a novel microchannel 3D-printing process in soft substrates infused with liquid metal for producing soft conductors and pressure sensors.
 

Bio: Dr. Thassyo Pinto is a postdoctoral fellow at the City College of New York, working in the Biomechatronics and Intelligent Robotics (BIRO) Lab. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University in 2020, and his B.S. in Mechatronics Engineering from Universidade Salvador (Brazil) in 2014. His research interests are in soft robotics, evolutionary robotics and exoskeletons. His current work investigates the interface between soft robotics and wearable devices. He is also an active member of IEEE and RAS, acting as a volunteer at various STEM events and robotics competitions. He has received many IEEE awards during his student life including the Larry K. Wilson Regional Student Activities Award in 2019.