Author:
Silver Gutmann

Indrek Must, associative professor of soft robotics

Soft robotics at IMS Lab

Soft robotics bridges robots to life. Our new generation of robots are built of soft and biocompatible materials, actuated using ionic drives, and programmed for specific functions by arrangement of the material structures. Softness provides robots the ability to physically interact to the environment in similar to natural organisms, offering a clear advantage in negotiation of unstructured environments and in handling of fragile objects. Softness also renders the robots as intrinsically compliant and safe to the natural organisms, suggesting their applications in minimally invasive medicine and in wearable care devices.

We are part of highly interdisciplinary Intelligent Materials and Systems Lab headed by prof Alvo Aabloo.

Highlights

Spray-coating of artificial muscles on textile (Sensor Actuat B-chem 2017)

World’s first biomimetic energy-autonomous terrestrial soft robot driven by artificial muscles (Adv eng mater 2014)

Large-scale benchmarking of ionic artificial muscles (Sci Rep 2014)

Core team

Indrek Must (associate professor of soft robotics)

Urmas Johanson

Full list of lab members

Student projects

We always welcome new motivated bachelors’, masters’ and PhD students, as well as postdocs, to join our team. The cross-disciplinary nature of soft robotics creates opportunities for people interested in material science, in electronics, in medical technologies, in mechanical design, as well as in biomimetics.

We offer student projects on the following general topics:

  • Design of wearable robots for healthcare;
  • Replication of biological actuation and stiffness-control mechanisms;
  • Design of miniaturized bio-inspired robots.

Full list of potential student projects in soft robotics

Indrek Must
Faculty of Science and Technology
Institute of Technology
Associate Professor of Soft Robotics 0.3 p
Nooruse 1-332
+372 737 4832
Indrek Must
Faculty of Science and Technology
Institute of Technology
Associate Professor of Soft Robotics 0.3 p
Nooruse 1-332
+372 737 4832
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