The development of robots has until recently been focussed on rigid materials like metal or hard plastic. As the human need for useful robots develops, these materials are no longer suitable. Also, with their complex configuration, poor spatial adaptability and low flexibility, rigid robots are not fully applicable in some special environments such as limb rehabilitation, fragile objects gripping, human–machine interaction and locomotion. These are important applications that are needed for society. Dr Allahyar Montazeri has been working with researchers at the University of Lincoln and the University of Loughborough on a novel way to approach these issues.

Medical and agricultural robots that interact with living tissue or pick fruit require tactile and flexible sensors to minimise or eliminate damage. No one will pay the full cost for damaged fruit or want to have stitches administered by a robot assistant that hurts them more. However, the design and manufacture of soft robot parts that interact with living tissue or fragile objects is not straightforward.

Given that hyper-elasticity and conductivity are involved, conventional manufacturing can result in wasted materials, incompatible parts due to different physical properties, and high costs. Dr Montazeri’s work involves finding an appropriate solution to this issue where they can be much greater sensitivity in the components to produce the more gentle result that is needed. In this work, additive manufacturing (3D printing) is used to produce a conductive, composite flexible sensor. Its electrical response was tested based on various physical conditions, and it was optimised to achieve functionality and durability.

The key aspect of the research here is that delicate and gentle interactions with human tissues or sensitive objects are of key importance. The work is ongoing, but the resulting paper led to Dr Montazeri being invited to join the topic advisory panel of the Robotics MDPI journal which is a great accolade to his services to Robotic Engineering. It was published in a special issue of the Robotics MDPI journal called Soft Robotics: Fusing Function with Structure

Dr Allahyar Montazeri said: “The research provided a great chance to collaborate with colleagues from both Lincoln and Loughborough Universities and publish the results in the special issue Soft Robotics: Fusing Function with Structure for which I had invitation to publish a featured paper with Robotics MDPI.”