Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Biologically Inspired Soft Robotics
Michael T. Tolley
Associate Professor
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Jacobs School of Engineering
UC San Diego
September 19, 2025
https://www.ri.cmu.edu/event/biologically-inspired-soft-robotics/
Abstract:
Robotics has the potential to address many of today’s pressing problems in fields ranging from healthcare to manufacturing to disaster relief. However, the traditional approaches used on the factory floor do not perform well in unstructured environments. The key to solving many of these challenges is to explore new, non-traditional designs. Fortunately, nature surrounds us with examples of novel ways to navigate and interact with the real world. Dr. Tolley’s Bioinspired Robotics and Design Lab seeks to borrow the key principles of operation from biological systems and apply them to robotic design. This talk will give an overview of recent projects in the lab that investigate the ways in which the use of non-traditional materials can help solve challenging problems in robotics. These projects seek to develop bioinspired systems capable of navigating the world by walking, digging, and swimming (inspired by animals like turtles, worms, and the oarfish) and of interacting safely with humans and delicate objects.
Bio:
Michael T. Tolley is Associate Professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Director of the Bioinspired Robotics and Design Lab at the Jacobs School of Engineering, UC San Diego (bioinspired.ucsd.edu). Before joining the mechanical engineering faculty at UCSD in the fall of 2014, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University. He received the Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering with a minor in computer science from Cornell University in 2009 and 2011, respectively. His research seeks inspiration from nature to design robotic systems with the versatility, resilience, and efficiency of biological organisms. His work has appeared in leading academic journals including Science and Nature, and has been recognized by various awards including a US Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program award. He is active in the robotics community, serving in multiple associate editor and conference organizer roles including as Program Chair of the IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft) in 2020 and General Chair in 2024. Prof. Tolley is a Senior Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a member of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS), and of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and is currently a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society.
Biologically Inspired Soft Robotics
Michael T. Tolley
Associate Professor
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Jacobs School of Engineering
UC San Diego
September 19, 2025
https://www.ri.cmu.edu/event/biologically-inspired-soft-robotics/
Abstract:
Robotics has the potential to address many of today’s pressing problems in fields ranging from healthcare to manufacturing to disaster relief. However, the traditional approaches used on the factory floor do not perform well in unstructured environments. The key to solving many of these challenges is to explore new, non-traditional designs. Fortunately, nature surrounds us with examples of novel ways to navigate and interact with the real world. Dr. Tolley’s Bioinspired Robotics and Design Lab seeks to borrow the key principles of operation from biological systems and apply them to robotic design. This talk will give an overview of recent projects in the lab that investigate the ways in which the use of non-traditional materials can help solve challenging problems in robotics. These projects seek to develop bioinspired systems capable of navigating the world by walking, digging, and swimming (inspired by animals like turtles, worms, and the oarfish) and of interacting safely with humans and delicate objects.
Bio:
Michael T. Tolley is Associate Professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Director of the Bioinspired Robotics and Design Lab at the Jacobs School of Engineering, UC San Diego (bioinspired.ucsd.edu). Before joining the mechanical engineering faculty at UCSD in the fall of 2014, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University. He received the Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering with a minor in computer science from Cornell University in 2009 and 2011, respectively. His research seeks inspiration from nature to design robotic systems with the versatility, resilience, and efficiency of biological organisms. His work has appeared in leading academic journals including Science and Nature, and has been recognized by various awards including a US Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Program award. He is active in the robotics community, serving in multiple associate editor and conference organizer roles including as Program Chair of the IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft) in 2020 and General Chair in 2024. Prof. Tolley is a Senior Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a member of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society (RAS), and of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and is currently a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society.
