Increasing the scientific excellence and technological innovation capacity in Functional Materials for Medical Devices and Robotics of the University of Tartu

Project Information

TWINNIMS

Grant agreement ID: 857263

DOI

10.3030/857263

Project closed

EC signature date 11 July 2019

Start date 1 November 2019

End date 31 October 2022

Funded under

• Twinning of research institutions

Total cost

€ 799 875,00

EU contribution

€ 799 875,00

Coordinated by

TARTU ULIKOOL
Estonia

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - TWINNIMS (Increasing the scientific excellence and technological innovation capacity in Functional Materials for Medical Devices and Robotics of the University of Tartu)

Reporting period: 2021-02-01 to 2022-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

-Estonia’s University of Tartu will receive a big boost in the research of functional materials for medical devices and robotics, especially in terms of minimally invasive and wearable medical robotics. It will strengthen its capacity for scientific excellence in this field through exchanges of competences and resources with leading European partners like the Italian Institute of Technology and the Institute of Electronics, Microelectronics and Nanotechnology at the French National Center for Scientific Research. The EU-funded TWINNIMS project will enable the collaboration. The project will allow the exchange of working visits, mentoring, technology transfer, joint activities and will boost innovation capacities.

-For a long time, there was discontinuity between how we imagined smart robotic devices and the reality of actual robots. More than decades, assistive manipulators in the real world have meant clumsy industrial devices with limited interface and usability. Today, soft robotic technology is considered to be among the radical innovation breakthroughs and a rapidly growing multidisciplinary research area where is a need for shared knowledge and that entails high expectations. Movement from traditional robotics towards soft robotic technologies has an urgent need for a new framework for development of specific soft transducers: electroactive microenvironmental sensors and bionic manipulators. All bionic manipulators have so far suffered from being too reactive to environment changes and their lifetime is limited. This has caused difficulties in standardization of materials and creating applications.

-TWINNIMS aimed to bring together expertise in Bioinspired Soft Robotics (IIT), in Soft Materials Microfabrication Technologies (CNRS) and combine it with current trends in Biocompatibility and Electroactive Materials Engineering (UTartu) in order to boost a knowledge transfer and evoke new paradigm shift towards functional materials targeted for medical devices and -robotics.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

TWINNIMS started with 2 day hackathon Feb 2020 just after kick-off meeting in Tartu where all partners participated (Only event during the period that was not affect by COVID-19). It was huge event with more than 100 participants in total. The work carried out within TWINNIMS resulted in online masterclasses, Exhibitions (, Workshops, several Dissemination events (StudentNight) and of course fruitful training visits from UTARTU to IIT and from UTARTU to CNRS order to boost a knowledge transfer and evoke new paradigm shift.

Successful exploitation involves entering into market. For Soft Robotics the market seems existing, but certainly, it is completely immature in many terms. Currently product development is dominated by seed donations from mainly from research projects that drive the current trends in relatively small market cap. The soft robotics industry is being driven by the new possibilities offered by these robots against rigid robotic technology and the need to evolve human-friendly machinery. Soft robots are versatile in nature, in opposition to the traditional, metallic robots, which are rigid, thus, providing lucrative future growth prospects for the market. As soft robots are made from flexible and soft materials, including nanomaterials, they can perform biological functions as that of human muscles. This characteristic of soft robots is expected to pave their adoption in a variety of applications, including medical, industrial, and locomotive, thus, boosting the market growth. Within TWINNIMS project a start-up company (SoftRobot OÜ) was founded in Sept. 2021 in order to bring the result to market. In the spirit of the Industry 5.0 concept, SoftRobot OÜ will contribute to human centred technology with keeping in mind the societal implications and positive effect on humans. Importantly, bio-inspired soft robotics will not rely of heavy machinery, but appraise bio-friendly polymers. Its aims easier to recycle circles which is in line with the green transition and sustainable production objectives. The Soft Robotics Market is expected to register a CAGR of 35.1% over the forecast period (2022- 2027). Though soft robotics is still in its early stages, with the variety of benefits offered by soft robots compared to traditional robots, the penetration of soft robots is expected to grow dramatically over the forecast period. Also, the global COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the demand to automate to alleviate workforce challenges and develop operational and Food Safety in factory environments, which has led to the market's growth.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Biological materials are usually soft, which makes them difficult to manipulate without damage using rigid manipulators, unless extensive sensorised feedback and complicated control algorithms are applied. Soft robotics frameworks offer different approach that enable the design of soft actuated elements with their mechanical (elastic) parameters well-matched to the microorganisms, thus offering an intrinsically safe solution for manipulation. The soft manipulation capability enables mimicking of specific stimuli occurring in nature (such as being touched by another organism of the same kind) and thus creates an opportunity to replicate complex interaction scenarios in vitro. In addition to simplicity and safety, the natural-like interactions minimize the undesired interferences to the biological domain for isolation of specific biomechanical features. Soft sensorised manipulation enables enhanced in situ perception of the mechanical state of the in vitro microorganisms and cells for a more complete picture of the biomechanical process.
Merging biological and non-biological matter to fabricate bionic manipulator with controllable motion and function is of great interest due to its potential applications. In medical and personal robotics, soft-matter machines will enable safe and biomechanically compatible interactions with humans. At a smaller scale, miniature soft robots promise to help in medical applications such as drug delivery and surgery.

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