Dr. Moritz Bächer
Developing Soft Robotic Technologies for Natural Interactions with Humans
In this talk, I will first provide an overview of Disney Research (DR). DR combines the best of academia and industry, by doing both basic and application-driven research. Our research applications and technology are experienced by millions of people.
Soft robotic technologies developed within and beyond SOMA bear potential for safe and natural interactions with humans. However, we lack methods for the structured benchmarking of human-(soft)-robot interactions. In a second part of my talk, I will discuss strategies and metrics that aid us with this evaluation task.
With modern manufacturing technologies, we can build artifacts, characters and structures of almost unbounded complexity at the press of a button, shifting the design complexity towards computation. In a third part, I will highlight a few computational techniques that aid with the design of mechanical assemblies and deformable sensors with applications in soft robotics.
Short CV:
Moritz Bächer is a Research Scientist in the Computational Materials group at Disney Research Zurich. His research interests lie at the intersection of computer graphics and digital fabrication and span a wide range of computational aspects therein: interactive design, physically-based and geometric modeling, and data-driven techniques. He applies his knowledge to tackle computational design and digital manufacturing problems at toy, animatronic, and architectural scales. Before joining Disney, he received a Ph.D. from the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and graduated with a Masters from ETH Zurich.
Disney Research Zurich
Stampfenbachstrasse 48
8006 Zurich
Switzerland