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X-APPLE-TRAVEL-ADVISORY-BEHAVIOR:AUTOMATIC
204161
20250211T152327Z
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250220T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:2
 0250220T150000
URL;TYPE=URI:/news/calendar/events/robot
 ics-engineering-colloquium-series-dr-wenzhong-yan
Robotics Engineering Colloquium Series: Dr. Wenzhong Yan
SoftMechs: Mechanically Intelligent Soft Robots\n\n\n\n      \n      \n\n\n
 \nAbstract: Inspired by nature, soft robots built primarily from compliant
  materials aim to emulate the remarkable capabilities of biological system
 s, especially in unstructured and complex environments. Yet, they fall sho
 rt in matching the structural adaptability, physical robustness, and power
  autonomy (the ability to operate indefinitely without manual energy input
 ) of their natural counterparts. My research aims to bridge this gap via M
 echanical Intelligence (MI)鈥攁 strategy that embeds sensing, control, act
 uation, and power directly within robots' mechanical structures, thereby r
 educing dependence on computational intelligence (CI), like high-performan
 ce processors and AI. By adopting MI, we can simplify, minimize, and stren
 gthen current soft robots that rely heavily on CI, which can be inefficien
 t or impractical in complex environments. The resulting mechanically intel
 ligent soft robots, or SoftMechs, will leverage AI in design and selective
 ly integrate AI for optimized functionality, ultimately moving toward trul
 y robust, adaptive, and autonomous agents that mirror the capabilities of 
 biological organisms.  In this talk, I will demonstrate the power of MI, f
 ocusing on three thrusts: the power, body, and control. First, I will pres
 ent methods for harvesting constant environmental energy via functional ma
 terials and structures into useful formats for independently powering robo
 ts. I鈥檒l demonstrate this by building an autonomous soft robot that can 
 continuously jump using energy harvested from light, without requiring a t
 ether or external control. Then, I will showcase how to improve the struct
 ural adaptability of soft robots so they can adapt to changing environment
 s while maintaining loading capability. I鈥檒l introduce an adaptive metam
 aterial capable of adjusting its shape and stiffness as needed. Building o
 n this, I will show you a soft robot that can crawl through restricted, co
 mplex spaces, adapting its body to the environment. I will also demonstrat
 e how to embed autonomous behaviors directly into mechanical structures, m
 aking them robust in adversarial environments, especially where semiconduc
 tors would fail. I will showcase this using soft mechanical circuits and s
 everal purely mechanical robots. One example, inspired by the Venus flytra
 p, can recognize and capture "living" objects without the need for semicon
 ductor-based electronics. Finally, I will conclude with a discussion on in
 tegrating advancements in power, body, and control, enabling the creation 
 of truly self-sustained, adaptive, and robust soft robots that not only mi
 rror but may even exceed the capabilities of biological organisms\nBio: We
 nzhong Yan is a postdoctoral fellow in the Electrical and Computer Enginee
 ring Department at UCLA, working with Ankur Mehta. He earned his Ph.D. in 
 Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the same institution in 2023. Hi
 s research interests are broad, encompassing soft robotics, origami robots
 , mechanical intelligence, energy harvesting, structural instability, comp
 utational fabrication, multifunctional materials and actuators, and wearab
 le devices. Wenzhong has received several prestigious awards, including th
 e Cyber-Physical Systems Rising Star, Robotics: Science and Systems Pionee
 r, and the 2024 Edward K. Rice Outstanding Doctoral Student Award from UCL
 A's Samueli School of Engineering. His work has been published in top jour
 nals such as Science, Nature Communications, Science Advances, Materials H
 orizons, and Soft Robotics, and has been featured in prominent press outle
 ts like National Science Foundation News, EurekAlert (AAAS), and Popular S
 cience.\nZoom link: https://wpi.zoom.us/j/93413349160\n
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