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Soft Machines Lab
Collaborating Lab
A Collaborating Lab is usually run by someone outside of RI, but still collaborates with and contains members of The Robotics Insitute.
Soft Machines Lab creates integrated soft materials for human compatible machines and electronics.
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A Collaborating lab is usually run by a CMU Faculty member outside of RI, but still collaborates with and contains members of The Robotics Insitute.

Our primary focus is on multifunctional materials for soft robots that are safe for human interaction.

Displaying 14 Publications

2025
Holistic Soft Material Systems for Advancing Robotic and Wearable Sensing Functionality
Anthony Tyler Wertz
PhD Thesis, Tech. Report, CMU-RI-TR-25-04, February, 2025
2024
Domesticating Soft Robotics Research and Development with Accessible Biomaterials
Kiyn Chin
PhD Thesis, Tech. Report, CMU-RI-TR-24-65, September, 2024
Tactile sensing for Robot Learning: Development to Deployment
Raunaq Mahesh Bhirangi
PhD Thesis, Tech. Report, CMU-RI-TR-24-61, August, 2024
2022
Muscle-Inspired Linear Actuators by Electrochemical Oxidation of Liquid Metal Bridges
Jiahe Liao and Carmel Majidi
Journal Article, Advanced Science, July, 2022
Liquid Metal Actuators
Jiahe Liao
PhD Thesis, Tech. Report, CMU-RI-TR-22-51, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, July, 2022
Liquid Crystal Elastomer with Integrated Soft Thermoelectrics for Shape Memory Actuation and Energy Harvesting
Mason Zadan, Dinesh K. Patel, Andrew P. Sabelhaus, Jiahe Liao, Anthony Wertz, Lining Yao, and Carmel Majidi
Journal Article, Advanced Materials, April, 2022
Bioinspired Robotic Actuators by Electrochemical Oxidation of Liquid Metal Droplets
Jiahe Liao and Carmel Majidi
Conference Paper, Proceedings of American Physical Society March Meeting (APS '22), March, 2022
2020
Localization and Force-Feedback with Soft Magnetic Stickers for Precise Robot Manipulation
Tess Hellebrekers, Kevin Zhang, Manuela Veloso, Oliver Kroemer, and Carmel Majidi
Conference Paper, Proceedings of (IROS) IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 8867 - 8874, October, 2020
Soft Materials Architectures for Robot Manipulation
Ryan Coulson
Master's Thesis, Tech. Report, CMU-RI-TR-20-42, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, August, 2020
2019
Predicting Grasp Success with a Soft Sensing Skin and Shape-Memory Actuated Gripper
Julian Zimmer, Tess Hellebrekers, Tamim Asfour, Carmel Majidi, and Oliver Kroemer
Conference Paper, Proceedings of (IROS) IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 7120 - 7127, November, 2019

current head

Portrait of Carmel Majidi
Carmel Majidi

current student

Portrait of Akhil Padmanabha
Akhil Padmanabha
Portrait of Aditti Ramsisaria
Aditti Ramsisaria
Portrait of Guo Sue
Andrew Sue

past members