ABOUT SRRC | SRRC

About SRRC

Greetings from Director

Welcome to SRRC webpage.

Soft Robotics Research Center (SRRC) of Seoul National University was established in November 2016 as an Engineering Research Center (ERC), a project of the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Grant, funded by the Korean Government (Ministry of Science and Information Technology)

This research center aims to lead soft robotics technology, which are under the main technologies of the national R&D strategic roadmap, through the development of next-generation wearable robot technology.

Detailed research areas are

1) the design of soft wearable robots with enhanced conformability and durability based on embodied intelligence and biomechanics,

2) the development of soft sensors and soft sensor arrays capable of estimating the robot's condition though high deformation and flex and

3) identify wearer's intention / work situation and develop wearable robot control algorithm based on machine learning. In addition, through creative, practical and convergent research, SRRC will foster excellent research groups that will lead the next generation of wearable robot technology and lead related industries.

In this process, SRRC will establish the world class global soft robotics hub through global stage industry-university collaboration and contribute to international soft robotics industry such as creating new jobs and industry field.

Prof. Kyujin Cho

Director, Soft Robotics Research Center

Seoul National University

Introduction

SRRC Overview

The birth of the soft robot concept and shifting in the robot design/production/control paradigm
The wearable robot in global market continues to grow and commercialized soft wearable robots emerge
The need to secure original technology by setting a development direction differentiated from the existing soft wearable robots

Robotics, which started from industrial robots, has expanded its research scope to exploration, service, medical, and humanoid robots, and recently, research on wearable robots has been actively conducted.
Wearable robots are developing in the direction of miniaturization and wearability improvement, but the development of a “soft wearable robot” technology is urgently needed for more advanced human-robot coordination.
In addition, the field of soft robots, which is still in its infancy, is undergoing research focusing on element technology, but in order to lead the research internationally, research that can be completed into a single system by integrating the fields of design, production, driving, sensing, and control is required.
Through research on soft wearable robot systems, it will be possible to develop original technologies that can be applied to all parts of the human body, and this will be a foundation for national industrial competitiveness as it can be expanded to various fields such as healthcare, outdoor, industrial, and virtual/augmented reality.

Vision and objectives

Human oriented soft Wearable robot development usable in everyday life

Building an international research hub for soft wearable robotics by establishing convergence research network internally and externally

By building an open innovation platform for soft wearable robot development create new robot-industries

Periodical Research Strategy

1st Period - Origianal Technology Development (2016.11- 2019.12)

Soft structure and structure mechanism design (Structure design considering sensor for accurate data collection) Soft sensor design and production technology (effective data collection through sensor network) Soft robot control algorithm (soft robot control considering biomechanics/atypical platform)

2nd Period - Prototype Application Development (2020.01 - 2022.12)

By fusion of original technology developed by individual groups, Development of 6 prototypes for the elbow, knee, shoulder, hip joint, wrist, and ankle and evaluation of usability.

Research Participants