Designer hopes to serve as bridge between engineers, non-engineers in soft robotics

Youn Hye-jun, a designer and researcher at the Harvard Graduate School of Design who was on this year's Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list. Youn's research involves using material science to create interactive designs of soft robotics and other structures with user-friendly interfaces. Courtesy of Youn Hye-jun

26-year-old designer listed on this year's Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list

By Park Han-sol

Soft robotics, as the name indicates, involves the design and construction of robots with non-rigid, highly compliant materials that can resemble the flexible movements of living organisms ― as they are able to bend, curl, fold and inflate, for example.

While the technology is still in its infancy, the elastically soft, adaptable and self-morphing robots made with materials like silicone elastomers have tremendous potential.

They can, in theory, be deployed for invasive surgery, as their shape-changing properties allow them to navigate along different structures within the human body more safely. The technology can also be used to build flexible exosuits, or robotic wearables that do not restrict a person's natural movements. And how about self-folding packages that could be used in everyday life?

But to non-engineers who are interested in exploring the field ― interactive designers, for example ― emerging technology like soft robotics still poses high barriers to entry.

The lack of user-friendly interfaces, tools and easy-to-understand documentation of their functionality hinders users of other disciplinary backgrounds from creatively engaging with these new mediums, Youn Hye-jun argues.

As a designer and researcher with a background in psychology and digital media, the 26-year-old noted that to pursue her long-standing interest in user experience design, it was crucial to do the legwork to seek interdisciplinary collaboration with engineers and scientists from other institutions.

"My experience with emerging technologies has highlighted their relative inaccessibility to non-experts. I continued to witness many promising innovations from others going ultimately unrealized because of this," she told The Korea Times in a recent Zoom interview.

Currently studying at the Harvard Graduate School of Design with a concentration in robotics and digital fabrication, Youn focuses on using material science, the branch concerned with the development and application of new materials, to create interactive designs of robotics and other structures with user-friendly interfaces.

Last month, she was listed on Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list in the industry, manufacturing and energy category.

Her recent projects include building air-powered, or "pneumatically actuated," soft robots and their related devices that can help lower the barrier for non-engineers like herself to explore the field of soft robotics.

Inflatable modules for PneuBots, a soft robot-building educational kit for amateurs / Courtesy of Youn Hye-jun

PneuBots' modules can be assembled into basic forms of shape-changing and interactive soft robots. Courtesy of Youn Hye-jun

One such example is PneuBots, which is also the name of a startup Youn co-founded last year. The project has been backed by Harvard Innovation Lab's student startup support program.

PneuBots is a soft robot-building educational kit for amateurs. When injected with compressed air, each of its inflatable modules can perform different actions: bending, folding and twisting.

"These modules can be assembled into basic forms of shape-changing and interactive soft robots," the designer said. The kit can serve as a first step for creators without engineering backgrounds to learn about the world of soft robotics and its actuation mechanisms.

Another project that Youn took part in, FlowIO, earned her team two awards at the world-renowned design competitions last year: the iF Design Award and the International Design Excellence Award (IDEA).

FlowIO, a miniature pneumatic platform and a device that can be connected to soft robots and power them to behave in a desired way / Courtesy of Youn Hye-jun

FlowIO is a platform and a device that can be connected to soft robots and perform a series of pneumatic actions: pumping the air into or out of the robots, pressure sensing, etc. It serves different user needs for air pressure and flow rate to power the robots to perform in a desired way.

"One main challenge faced by artists and designers who want to work on soft robotics projects is that they typically need to spend a significant amount of time building their own driving systems and devices like FlowIO from scratch to operate the robots ― even though the star of the show is the robot, not the device," she stated.

FlowIO allows its users to bypass the step of having to build the basic driving system and focus on putting their more complex ideas of robotics design and application into practice.

Both PneuBots and FlowIO represent Youn's goal to serve as a bridge between the seemingly disparate worlds of designers, who wish to learn more about the soft robotics fabrication and actuation process, and engineers, who want their prototypes to see the light of day with more user-friendly designs.

"My goal is to develop products and interfaces enabling artists and designers to overcome technical obstacles in exploring the full potential of these emerging technologies," she said.