The incredible potential of flexible, soft robots | Giada Gerboni

Robots are designed for speed and precision -- but their rigidity has often limited how they're used. In this illuminating talk, biomedical engineer Giada Gerboni shares the latest developments in "soft robotics," an emerging field that aims to create nimble machines that imitate nature, like a robotic octopus. Learn more about how these flexible structures could play a critical role in surgery, medicine and our daily lives.
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[@MrYeezy77]

Going up there even with a strong native accent is incredibly admirable and inspiring. Would be a lot cooler if more people could actually complement her in a respectful manner, tho.

[@LUCTIANITO]

Yeezy Yeezy Do you know where is that accent from? It doesn't sound Indian and I ve never heard it before

[@MrYeezy77]

LUCTIANITO I belive she's Italian...

[@leojlg9147]

Yeezy Yeezy she is

[@Capjedi]

She's hot. Bioengineer. I want one!

[@Capjedi]

I think she said that she's South American. My guess, Peru, or Brazil. Lots of Nazis down there.

[@georgwachberg1242]

content-person-accent, i have never seen a smoother TED talk.

[@doblerollo7952]

Don't make that face at the end, you did wonderfully!!!

[@ericzhang4464]

That's true!

[@slevinshafel9395]

agree with you.

[@Zahlenteufel1]

Japan will definitely combine this technology with hyper-realistic humanoid androids.

[@drealm]

Sexy time, the Japanese will make sexy time robots for the world. This is there secret weapon against everyone.

[@ruinaderoma]

Why is that robot covered in fur

[@JagoTFC]

Gundam dildos will never be the same

[@giambattistaradaelli5895]

I am italian like her so I am very proud about it. Excellent !!

[@metanumia]

Amazing presentation! I want to learn more about this field of robotics now. This is a refinement of traditional robotics that was invented thanks to creative scientists and engineers, such as Giada, who have a set of skills at the crossroads between science, technology, engineering, art, math, observation, and appreciation of nature. This a great example of the brilliant inventions and designs that can arise from the minds and hard work of people provided with a broad education that emphasizes science, art, and nature equally! :)

[@stanleyjohnson8211]

Very cool. I can envision many applications for the use of soft robots. Great presentation.

[@MCS1993]

The Surgical use of these soft robots is very interesting. I perform robotic surgery and would love to help them develop surgical instruments

[@chemdraw2360]

Where the frick is Ted, he never shows up!

[@chemdraw2360]

GRIFFIN STUDIOS yeah it is realy sad that I got so many like

[@aajam5311]

Can't wait to see the sick stuff we can do with soft robotics

[@amirshemesh7014]

Thank you

[@miketreker944]

Excellent presentation. She carries herself well.

[@zenitaly]

So cute, she sounds exaclty as an Florentine Italian girl. Aaah, makes me feel nostalgic. I miss my home town.. But respect to this girl, she's also able to make the audience laugh, intentionally.

[@_a_x_s_]

embodied intellegence... It really needs to be properly defined nowadays for soft robotics as it's an inherited terminology. Nice!

[@endrankluvsda4loko172]

Very interesting! Great talk!

[@alaakhashoun8092]

Amazing Presentation!!! Very Interesting

[@lucabenvenuti2667]

Che brava Giada!! Complimenti davvero!! Da San Pierino alla California, mantenendo sempre l'accento fucecchiese!! 😁😉 Tante buone cose per il futuro!

[@bmoviestgams]

Wonderfull speech Wonderfull speaker

[@mikahel2107]

involution is served with plause. What a admirable satisfaction!

[@sue4182]

Super interesting, I never thought about using 'soft' robotics before. I can really see how that would be beneficial to movement and stability. Robots are still poor at sensing environments and identifying objects so it would be better if something soft was trying to handle a task than hard metal or plastic whipping away at at an object. The starfish looking robot was almost creepy to look at, almost as if it was controlling itself! I love when scientists copy the natural world, and it seems so intuitive to do that I'm surprised it is not more common in robotics!

[@themarsoff]

Потому что это сложно реализовать, намного проще взять сервоприводы и прикрепить к железке.

[@m_n42]

Great talk

[@beliasphyre3497]

Live tentacle adult entertainment in our lifetime.

[@5n8ke]

Belias Phyre all that praying to zone tan payed off :)

[@argon1611]

She's actually .. awesome.

[@harsh9558]

This is great!

[@tonyelsom6382]

Great presentation...love that accent

[@masterpieceoneday8321]

2:13 “You probably think you won’t be able to do anything if you’re soft.” 😳what no not me!

[@2806milinda]

Wonderful speech! and i like that accent :D

[@frontallobotomy3481]

Crawling robots? Thank you for my insomnia

[@NathanK97]

thats the part that bothered you? not the needle that can steer around inside of your body?

[@LH19851985]

Cute, inteligent and modest - perfect scientist :)

[@sanjuansteve]

#SemiAutonomousHangGliding I imagine a hang glider with an electric motor propeller for use when needed that has a small weight shifting motor set at the pilot's hang-point to help pull a pilot into the appropriate body shift position while flying in semi-autonomous mode for training for example, or in semi-autonomous mode when safe during otherwise fully autonomous hang gliding flights for brand new pilots.

[@Edwardegraham]

Instructor, are ready for using spiritual sight, integrated with EMF body interface with effector driving circuits? Non-body interface?

[@alexpskywalker]

Robot octopus? That's gonna make a lot of people happy in the bedroom. If you know what I mean

[@wisdon]

Only if the robot octopus meet a Japanese girl

[@georgemathieson6097]

Baymax!!!!

[@sumtingwong66]

Beautiful 😍😍😍

[@bobbyyankey5967]

Soft robotics is the way to go. Its application in invasive surgery is enormous.

[@celestialcircledance]

As a soft creature myself it certainly makes them a lot better looking and easier to relate to :) I can also see real world parallels like gung ho weight lifters who make themselves stronger but more inflexible and muscle bound or the ridgid tree that doesn't bend to high winds and snaps in two .

[@LilyAvarA]

This is great, also think of baymax from big hero 6 if you need another example of a soft robot. I know it's fiction but the idea to make a medic robot soft is a wonderful idea

[@izsac3842]

I was thinking about the same thing, but remember that just because he was inherently soft doesn't entail that he was a 'soft' robot. By her definition, I don't think Baymax would count as he had a rigid form of actuation (i.e. his skeleton was not a form of distributed actuation nor was it compliant to its environment).

[@thecasualfront7432]

Skynet will be a giant inflatable arm flailing tubeman.

[@georgeaura]

thats like the robot in hero 6

[@baymax1550]

Hi!

[@stephen3164]

Either someone hasn’t, or HAS, thought the video title through... 😂

[@slevinshafel9395]

Nice presentation with video and pictures. Because we are not in that field but interested so have many things wich we cant imagine. When is posible to make a heart for inside bodies? I see REPOMAN movie and is nice but they use metal instead soft artificial organs

[@nagacentil9962]

nice...

[@75gohan]

the softer the robots the better it is. we must have always know this.

[@janewang4242]

Most of her videos are from Harvard and in Singapore we are already commercialising our own soft robots from National University of Singapore.

[@afourtrackmind]

Superbabe.

[@9RXg]

amazing soft robotics

[@dgoddard]

Her shoes look very sensible.

[@stagnantmilk]

Cool

[@GauravSingh-ku5xy]

This is a breakthrough, isn't it?

[@oniricPrj]

elastagirl: "And I think you need to be more... [goes through rapid series of stretch-power maneuvers] flexible."

[@x3merx3mer]

Humans are more of hard mechanical bodies, yet we don't tumble around and we can do incredible stuff, so the structure itself is not the problem, but the sensory/programming part. While soft robots have their own (small) set of advantages, I don't see how they wouldn't have the same set of issues that "stiff" robots have.

[@PedroPereira-si3sy]

nemanja milosevic all depends on your pourpose. Your hands might look stiff, but still they have a sensitivity and malleability that stiff robots do not possess. Which makes it very hard to manipulate objects. And why to make hands in a robot, robots are supposed to help in things that humans can do , and also what humans can't, so perhaps a better option is to have tentacles.

[@x3merx3mer]

Pedro Pereira stiff nor soft robots do not have sensibility. Sensors&software are in charge of that. If they are not perfected enough for stiff ones, they won't do any better on soft ones..and soft ones have even more limited movement. Stiff ones with a little padding, good sensors & control is what we need. It is what we are.

[@h2energynow]

Giada Gerboni, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University Her intellect and ability to explain complex technology is amazing.

[@BigApeBooks]

There are quite a few robots with rigid structures that work well. The military uses "Big Dog" for transporting heavy gear through rough terrain, and Honda has their Asimo, which can run go up stairs and open doors, for example. Her examples of failed rigid structured bots are just early phases of these machines. I think her idea is good, just not a fair comparison.

[@tammysilverwolf1085]

I noticed that too, I thought that was an odd choice of examples but I think she was just framing it to be a somewhat 1:1 comparison since most of her soft robot examples were also fairly early development models. I've seen that white X looking one as far back as 2015. It'll take time to mature, but there's already been some really interesting examples of pneumatics used like muscle tissue, so who knows we might be seeing a talk like this with more mimetic and hybridized examples in the near future!

[@free_spirit1]

Big Dog is not something you would want standing around an elderly person, or a child. The thing weighs as much as a small motorcycle, and I would hate to get trampled by it.

[@marcodrammis9899]

Toscana, giusto?

[@alecar1778]

bella

[@covertcovenant]

I love all accents, but a nice italian accent is something wonderful, like extra virgin olive oil.

[@rgaleny]

make a human hand and arm for a robot or prosthetic

[@JanineFrancisco0908]

She's Tanya from MKX

[@comment.highlighted]

I think soft robotics may be the way androids in the future will move and function. That’s how they will get the flexibility we envision future androids to have 👽

[@VincentGonzalezVeg]

what if a robotic diving suit could be like a squid around you and fit and shape itself around your body

[@mehranraisi238]

I love that accent :)

[@__-tz6xx]

Elastigirl robots coming to stores near you for all your housework needs.

[@GILLIARDG9]

Giada is so intelligent and cute *-*

[@juqnvasil6104]

wait not to many lights inside ur body lol

[@xXAjaxXx]

Some interesting ideas, but the field seems like it is still in it's infancy

[@RawPeds]

Stava per scappare il grazie alla fine, eheh.

[@THOMASTHESAILOR]

Cute !

[@Edzhjus]

2:40 Various intelligences. 😉

[@mrdictator7030]

I hope John Connor is preparing well

[@dustinfarinha2836]

I'm having less worry about death by the day. By the time my time is up they're going to be able to fix me.

[@MrKgBizzle]

Don’t hold your breath unless you’re loaded like Buffet or Gates

[@rethinkscience8454]

The ultimate robotic will be organic and self repairing - an animal

[@IrisCrain]

Based on the soft valves created by Harvard, why can't they be adjusted and evolved into synthetic lungs for people who either develop lung cancer or lose their natural lungs in accidents or shootings, etc? I see a lot of applications that are not surgery on humans or replacing them like in the movie terminator or something. Which seems less expensive and less likely to be rejected by the body, silicone or say genetically grown organs from genetics not sources from the person being implanted? To me, the former seems more economically and outcome-driven than the later.

[@claimyourshame6196]

WHAT COULD GO WRONG?

[@MrFlyboy71]

Mama mia, that Italian accent...I could listen all day to her reading the federal tax code.

[@Dux_Sux]

Tentacle robots PogChamp

[@arafinhasan418]

I was wondering where did I heard that accent. 😂😂

[@sahinyasar9119]

I once saw a soft space ship and it was moving like a robot and people could live in it in my dream I thought it was designed for long trips of space

[@marcobarros4742]

Şahin yaşar wow what a nice dream!

[@sahinyasar9119]

thanks

[@damiangonzalez3786]

I came here just to read the comments xD.

[@tobiashmm2322]

Nice one! And no, not just her.

[@PresidentialWinner]

Yeah very good talk, she's smart, cool new robots from Harvard MIt Stanford and that ending, was she embarrassed lol 2 cute

[@khshur2]

i have a question about TED talks : does anyone that go there want funds .. or something this is why they are talking ?

[@decube9614]

lidko Helis as far as i know its just a science panel, where all the smartasses gather to talk to each other.

[@Capjedi]

Giada Gerboni is hot. Nice presentation, too. I hate robots.

[@keithbell9348]

Biomimetics. Nature does it first and more efficiently.

[@Theraot]

Nature has no need to mimic life

[@Turking2000]

Nature is the best teacher we could ever ask for. We must study from evolution and then improve under our needs

[@Eunoialagom]

Biomimicry❤️

[@VincentGonzalezVeg]

@@Eunoialagom There are robotic flyingfoxes

[@an_what]

6:14 Oh man oh man is that a fail wow you’ve got to come up with some kind of transmission liquid system pumping back-and-forth between them tentacles I’m just saying do you want to explore the ocean or tickle the ocean

[@albertobozzetto8939]

Is She Italian?

[@nigrellitebe1248]

alberto bozzetto si

[@Melicioel7]

What gave it away?

[@nigrellitebe1248]

Eddard Liebber the accent, her clumsiness. Btw she says the k sound she's from tuscany

[@justinbrown9901]

Is she Italian?

[@joethafoe]

That was a good presentation. You have to look at us. All we are is natures robots with a super computer inside of us. Hopefully it geta more aubscribers to my channel lol. The best robots will be flexible and soft just like us. They will be able to take the shape of a dog, cat, a human or any animal because we are designed for this enviroment on earth so just copy what we are to build the ultimate robot ya know. Im a strong believer that all the answers we ever need is already inside of us. We are the answers. Everything you ever need to know you already know because your a super computer capable of wireless connections. No matter how superior AI gets we will always be better. Another thing I believe is that we actually think with all of our body rather than just our brain. Our hands, and feet think and the brain just recieves the messages. Embodied intelligence as she was saying.

[@tonyelsom6382]

At the rate tech is exploding currently, and man's yearning to create humanoid creatures, I wont be surprised to see that happening in my lifetime..

[@Kitsu_no_mirai]

Hmmmm. A coton terminator. Its robot but soft

[@MrExcel-sr3we]

Can i come and work with you please please

[@hackerman2022]

She fleek She a geek But most importanly She a freak

[@birblover6423]

Soft™️

[@codybaker1255]

She seemed a little nervous to me.

[@riyazpatan111]

0:55 this chick must look at boston dynamics robots

[@God-hr9tm]

Bendable Robots I see Where This is Going if you know what I Mean

[@LudditeCyborg]

High Thermal.Diode Materials!!!

[@LudditeCyborg]

Maybe have all the joints have eyes and looking at the other robots' joints ^___^ P2P

[@LudditeCyborg]

A good hat for MY car.

[@MisterK-YT]

Foxy

[@yux3356]

She’s Italian like me

[@bagusadikurniawan885]

Detroit become human will going to happen

[@junaidmukhtar1703]

😍

[@jesusvargas7030]

Rifado

[@natdaly903]

Yo get tf away from my research