This hands-on workshop offers an introduction to soft robotics — an emerging field that uses flexible materials and bio-inspired design to create systems that can move, adapt, and interact gently with their environment. Unlike traditional rigid robots, soft robotic systems can bend, change shape, and respond to external forces, making them especially relevant for human-centered technologies, wearable devices, and experimental design practices.

The workshop also explores “softness” not only as a material property, but as a design approach — one that enables more responsive, adaptive, and embodied forms of interaction.

During the session, participants will work directly with materials and simple fabrication techniques. They will create flexible fluidic actuators, explore how these structures generate movement, and combine them into more complex systems. The workshop will also introduce concepts such as granular and layer jamming, allowing participants to experiment with variable stiffness and shape transformation.

No prior experience is required. The workshop is open to beginners, as well as those interested in robotics, design, interactive technologies, or material-based experimentation.

All materials and tools will be provided.

Language: English

Duration: 2 hours

Ticket required

Workshop leaders:

Niccolò Pagliarani is a bionics engineer and soft robotics researcher, currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the BioRobotics Institute of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, as well as Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder of Capio Robotics. His work focuses on safe and adaptive robotic systems for real-world applications, including agri-food automation, assistive robotics, and space technologies.

Francesca Casale (SENSU), is a Turin-based artist working at the intersection of olfactory and visual practices. With a background in perfumery and herbalism, she explores smell as an intangible medium, creating immersive environments that invite sensory engagement and embodied experience.

Organized on the occasion of the Italian Research Day in the World, and as part of the “Creative Dialogues between Italy and Kazakhstan” series initiated by the Italian Institute of Culture in Almaty.