Bas Overvelde shows soft robots on TV program ‘Het Klokhuis’

On January 2, group leader Bas Overvelde appeared on the TV program Het Klokhuis. In the program, which is aimed at children, Bas explained what soft robots are and what they can do.

“A soft robot is made of silicone rubber, so soft material. We are trying to imitate nature more and more, for example a squid robot,” Bas said. “And these soft robots can do research in places like oceans, where it’s hard to get to, but also where you don’t want to cause damage, like to the coral.”

Soft robots can also do many other things that are impossible with hard robots. Bas: “The clever thing about this soft gripper is that it doesn’t need a computer to sense how big something is. So it automatically adjusts its shape to the object it picks up, in this case a piece of fruit.”