Artificial Muscles in Soft Assistive Wearable Robotics

Full-day workshop at IEEE RoboSoft
April 7, 2026 in Kanazawa (Japan)

Call for short talks, posters, and demos

Important Dates

  • Submission deadline: 18/03/2026 (23:59 AoE)
  • Notification of acceptance: 25/03/2026
  • Workshop date: 07/04/2026

Submission Guidelines

We invite the submission of one-page abstracts (PDF, 10 Mb max.) featuring late-breaking results, ongoing or published research, and innovative prototypes. No specific template required. We particularly seek contributions advancing artificial muscles, soft actuator technologies, wearable robotics, and assistive or rehabilitation applications. We also welcome related work in soft robotics, sensing technologies, control strategies, and system integration. Please submit your contribution via this Google Form https://forms.gle/GoxgW7hyVFmLD4mC7.

Presentation Format

Authors are invited to indicate their preferred presentation format: a poster, a live demonstration, or a 10-min oral presentation (reserved for young researchers). You are welcome to select multiple preferences. Please note that final formats will be confirmed by the organizers to ensure an optimal schedule.

Awards

To recognize outstanding contributions, three awards of $100 USD will be presented, courtesy of our sponsor, Artimus Robotics. The organizers will judge and award prizes for:

  • Best Young Researcher Talk
  • Best Poster
  • Best Demo

Program

All times are provided in the local time zone (UTC+9).

  • 09h00 - 09h10

    Opening remarks

  • 09h10 - 09h45

    Flexible Electrohydraulic Artificial Muscles

    Eric Acome (Artimus Robotics)

  • 09h45 - 10h10

    Soft Wearable Robots for Shoulder Support

    Harrison Young (Harvard)

  • 10h10 - 10h35

    Application of Muscle Suit to Nursing Care and Functional Training

    Hiroshi Kobayashi (Tokyo University of Science)

  • 10h35 - 10h45

    Coffee break

  • 10h45 - 11h10

    Soft Wearable Exosuits Actuated by Fabric Pneumatic Artificial Muscles

    Margaret (Coad) McGuinness (University of Notre Dame)

  • 11h10 - 11h40

    Panel discussion

    With Harrisong Y., Hiroshi K., and Margaret M.

  • 11h40 - 12h30

    Posters and Demonstrations

  • 12h30 - 13h30

    Lunch break

  • 13h30 - 15h30

    Young researcher talks (12 x 10 min)

  • 15h30 - 15h45

    Coffee break

  • 15h45 - 16h10

    Soft Sensors and Actuators for Human-Robot Interfaces in Wearable Robotics

    Joonbum Bae (Korea University)

  • 16h10 - 16h35

    Human-Centered Approaches to Wearable Design

    Rachael Granberry (Meta Reality Labs)

  • 16h35 - 17h00

    Toward Biosymbiotic Artificial Muscles and Assistive Clothing

    Jonathan Rossiter (University of Bristol)

  • 17h00 - 17h10

    Coffee break

  • 17h10 - 17h40

    Panel discussion

    With Joonbum B., Rachael G., and Jonathan R.

  • 17h40 - 17h55

    Awards, Closing, and Photos

Speakers

Eric Acome (Artimus Robotics)

Eric Acome (Artimus Robotics)

Eric Acome is a co-founder and CEO of Artimus Robotics. He has a background in mechanical engineering and has spent his career designing and developing electromechanical systems. As a co-inventor of the HASEL actuator technology, Eric has authored/co-authored numerous journal papers on the subject and is an inventor on several related patents. He and the Artimus team are passionate about developing the HASEL technology and the future that can be enabled by soft robotics.

View more
Harrison Young (Harvard)

Harrison Young (Harvard)

Harrison Young is a graduate student at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, where he is advised by Conor Walsh, Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He received his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Olin College of Engineering in 2020. Harrison’s research focuses on pneumatic soft wearable robots that assist shoulder movement in both industrial and clinical applications. His research interests include actuation, sensing, human-robot interaction, and the translation of assistive technologies from the lab to the real-world.

View more
Hiroshi Kobayashi (Tokyo University of Science)

Hiroshi Kobayashi (Tokyo University of Science)

Completed PhD in Engineering at the Tokyo University of Science (TUS) in 1995-Dispatched to the University of Zurich through the Postdoctoral Fellowship for Research Abroad of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science in 1996-Appointed as lecturer at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering at TUS in 1998-Appointed as Associate Professor at TUS in 1999-Currently serving as Professor at TUS (since 2008).

View more
Margaret McGuinness (University of Notre Dame)

Margaret McGuinness (University of Notre Dame)

Margaret (Coad) McGuinness joined the faculty at the University of Notre Dame in the fall of 2021, and she is currently an Assistant Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. She leads the Innovative Robotics and Interactive Systems (IRIS) Lab, which explores the design, modeling, and control of innovative robotic systems to improve human health, safety, and productivity; she also teaches courses in robotics and soft robotics. Prior to joining Notre Dame, she completed her Ph.D. degree in 2021 and M.S. degree in 2017 in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University, and her B.S. degree in 2015 in Mechanical Engineering at MIT.

View more
Joonbum Bae (Korea University)

Joonbum Bae (Korea University)

Joonbum Bae received the B.S. degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea, in 2006, the M.S. degree in mechanical engineering, the M.A. degree in statistics, and the Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA, in 2008, 2010, and 2011, respectively. Currently, he is a Professor at the School of Mechanical Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea, where he serves as the Director of the Bio-Robotics and Control (BiRC) Laboratory.

View more
Rachael Granberry (Meta Reality Labs)

Rachael Granberry (Meta Reality Labs)

Rachel Granberry is a Research Scientist at Meta in Redmond, Washington, where she develops haptic gloves and wrist-based wearables for the future of interaction in augmented and virtual reality. She has worked with teams to unlock on-body performance across a range of wearables, including wearable robotics and passive assistive devices, at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University, and dynamic compression devices at the University of Minnesota in partnership with NASA.

View more
Jonathan Rossiter (University of Bristol)

Jonathan Rossiter (University of Bristol)

Jonathan is a professor of Robotics and head of the Soft Robotics group at Bristol Robotics Laboratory. Soft robotics is the research and development of novel compliant technologies for robotic systems, medical applications and engineering. These include core technologies such as smart materials and artificial muscles, smart mechanisms and structures, autonomous soft robots, smart skins and tactile interaction devices. In my robotic actuator and artificial muscle research, I have been developing new polymer-composite actuators involving principles of buckling and bi-stability and robots which are inspired by bio-mimetic study of swimming organisms, including bacteria and fish.

View more

Scope

Artificial muscles are central to the development of assistive soft wearable robots, enabling lightweight, compliant, and adaptive systems that can safely interact with the human body. This workshop will explore recent advances in artificial muscle technologies, including pneumatic actuators, electrostatic films, shape memory alloys, and hybrid approaches. Emphasis will be placed on their underlying principles, material foundations, and integration into wearable devices that support mobility, strength, dexterity, and vital functions. Key topics include trade-offs between force density, efficiency, bandwidth, and durability, as well as strategies for ensuring safety, comfort, and long-term usability in real-world environments.

Invited talks by leading experts will showcase state-of-the-art results in design, fabrication, and application of artificial muscles for assistive wearables. Complementary poster and demonstration sessions will provide hands-on perspectives, highlight emerging ideas, and foster discussion among participants. By addressing both opportunities and challenges in actuation, the workshop aims to chart a path toward the next generation of artificial muscles that make assistive soft wearable robots more effective, reliable, and impactful in daily life.

Organizers

Junsoo Kim (EPFL)

Junsoo Kim (EPFL)

Junsoo Kim received the B.S. degree in mechanical engineering and computer science engineering and the Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan, South Korea, in 2017 and 2023, respectively. He is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher with the Soft Transducers Laboratory, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland, for working in artificial muscle and wearable robots. His research interests include soft robots, electrostatic actuators, exosuit, teleoperation, and humanoid robots.

View more
Thomas Daunizeau (EPFL)

Thomas Daunizeau (EPFL)

Thomas Daunizeau is a postdoctoral researcher in the Soft Transducers Laboratory (LMTS) at EPFL. He earned his Ph.D. from Sorbonne University in 2023, where his dissertation received the EuroHaptics Best Ph.D. Thesis Award, the GDR Robotique Prize, and the Prix de la Chancellerie. In 2021, he held a Fulbright Fellowship at Stanford University, conducting research on soft robotics. His research interests include soft tactile sensors, metamaterials, and biophysics, focusing on their applications in studying the sense of touch in both humans and robots.

View more
Cosima du Pasquier (Stanford)

Cosima du Pasquier (Stanford)

Cosima du Pasquier is a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University, working under the guidance of Allison Okamura. Collaborating with academic partners at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Georgia Tech, and the University of Houston. Her research centers on computational modeling, design, and fabrication of soft materials for human-robot interaction. Dr. du Pasquier earned her BSc, MSc, and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from ETH Zurich in 2014, 2017, and 2022 respectively. Her PhD dissertation was awarded the ETH Medal.

View more
Amy Kyungwon Han (Seoul National University)

Amy Kyungwon Han (Seoul National University)

Amy Kyungwon Han is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Seoul National University in Seoul, Korea. She was a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University and received a Ph.D. and M.S. from Stanford University and a B.S. from Georgia Tech. Her research includes soft actuators, sensors, medical robotics, haptics, and biomimetics. Prof. Han's awards include the MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 Asia Pacific, Rising Star of RoboSoft, ICRA New Generation Star, APBEC Young Scholar Award, Best RA-L Paper Award, and ICRA Best Poster Presentation. She was also recognized as one of the 50 Women in Robotics and a Rising Star in Mechanical Engineering. In addition to her research and academic work, she serves as an associate vice president of the Technical Activities Board and as a co-chair of the Technical Committee on Haptics within the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society.

View more
Conor Walsh (Harvard)

Conor Walsh (Harvard)

Conor J. Walsh received the B.S. degree in mechanical and manufacturing engineering from the Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland, in 2003, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA, in 2006 and 2010, respectively.,He is currently a Paul. A. Maeder Professor of engineering and applied sciences with the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and an Adjunct Associate Professor with the Department of Physical Therapy and Athletic Training, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA. He directs the Harvard Biodesign Laboratory, Allston, MA, USA, which brings together researchers from the engineering, industrial design, apparel, and clinical communities to develop disruptive soft wearable robotic technologies for augmenting and restoring human performance.

View more
Herbert Shea (EPFL)

Herbert Shea (EPFL)

Herbert Shea is a professor of mechanical engineering at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, where he leads the Soft Transducers Lab (EPFL-LMTS). Herb holds a PhD in physics from Harvard University (1997). He was as a postdoctoral fellow at IBM Research in Yorktown Heights for two years, and then worked for four years at Bell Labs (then part of Lucent Technologies) on the reliability of MEMS. Since 2004, Herb is a faculty member at EPFL, where his research is centered on electrically driven elastomer-based actuators for wearables, haptics and soft robotics.

View more

Venue

The workshop will be held at either the Kanazawa Hotel or Kanazawa Institute of Technology (KIT).

1-1 Horikawashinmachi,
Kanazawa,
Ishikawa 920-0849,
Japan

© 2025. All Rights Reserved.
Website compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).