M.W. Berghuis MSc (Minke)

Hi! I am working as a PhD candidate in Soft Robotics at the ET faculty. Soft robots are a new generation of machines designed for human-robot interaction. They consist of highly compliant materials and structures which make them inherently safe and pleasant to the human touch. Examples are polymer materials and inflatable structures. Soft manipulators are excellent for application in unstructured environments, such as in terrain exploration or Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS). However, modelling and control of these robots is still a challenge.

In my project, I combine the expertise in both the MS3 and the BE departments in fabrication, modelling and control of a soft continuum manipulator.

I received both my MSc. (2021) and BSc. (2017) in Mechanical Engineering at the UT. I particularly liked the subjects dealing with structural dynamics, mechatronic systems and numerical solution techniques. During the graduation phase, my interest grew for stochastic (Bayesian) modelling of multi-scale systems. Currently, I’m focusing more on the modelling aspects of material and geometric nonlinearities that are innate to soft robot behavior.