The European Robotics Forum (ERF) is one of Europe’s most influential annual events for the robotics and AI community, bringing together over 1,000 participants from industry, academia, and the public sector. ERF 2026 took place from 23–27 March 2026 in Stavanger, Norway, hosted at the Stavanger Forum.
Soft robotics is rapidly emerging as a transformative field, offering new ways to build flexible, compliant systems capable of safe and intuitive interaction with complex environments. These technologies hold tremendous promise for healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, inspection, and many other sectors.
At the ERF 2026, the workshop (no. 49) “Bringing Soft Robotics to Applications” was successfully concluded, organized by Dr. Linda Paternò (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna), Prof. Matteo Fumagalli (Danish Technical University), Dr. Gernot Kronreif (ACMIT), and Ilaria Cedrola (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna). The discussion highlighted critical barriers, including advanced materials, control strategies, scalability, durability, industrial integration.
ACMIT co‑organized the workshop and, within the MAPWORMS project, focuses on exploring the potential of the developed soft‑robotic components for impactful medical applications — a point highlighted in Dr. Gernot Kronreif’s lecture.
Thank you to all who took part in this enriching exchange, and especially to the speakers for sharing their insightful contributions.
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