Soft and Tangible Organic Responsive Materials progressing roBOTic functionS [STORM-BOTS]

STORM-BOTS (Soft and Tangible Organic Responsive Materials progressing roBOTic functionS) is a Marie Sklodowska Curie European Training Network offering a cutting-edge training programme to 13 junior researchers in the field of soft robotics of liquid crystal elastomers. STORM-BOTS counts on academic and non-academic leaders from top research institutions with unique scientific and technical expertise.

Local and network training activities, covering aspects of chemistry, physics, materials science, advanced manufacturing and robotics, as well as transferable skills, will give the researchers the opportunity to participate in pioneering research, acquiring the necessary skills for a future career in this field.

In Tampere University, the Smart Photonic Materials (SPM) research team has been examining liquid crystal-based materials since 2016. Recently they have focused on incorporating features typically associated with living organisms, such as multiresponsivity, learning, or out-of-equilibrium functions, into these materials.

This line of research is continued in the STORM-BOTS consortium, in which the SPM group trains two PhD students, Yasaman Nemati and Zixuan Deng.