Last month, a team of researchers from The Podium Institute for Sports Medicine and Technology travelled to Lausanne, Switzerland to participate in the 8th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft 2025). RoboSoft’s mission is to push the boundaries of soft robotics technologies and inspire the next generation of innovators in this rapidly evolving field. To achieve this, it puts emphasis on a cross-disciplinary gathering of researchers, industry leaders, and students, with this year’s conference centring on “Interdisciplinarity and Widening Horizons”. The event provided an excellent platform for the Podium team to showcase innovative work in sports medicine, particularly in the areas of injury prevention and rehabilitation.

Oliver Wing, Ryman Hashem, Lukas Cha, Prof Liang He, Chenying Liu- Image Courtesy of Prof Liang He

“Attending RoboSoft 2025 was an inspiring experience. It provided a fantastic platform to engage with leading researchers in soft robotics, share our recent work, and gain valuable insights. I also had the opportunity to meet potential new collaborators, which I’m excited to build future projects with.” Dr Ryman Hashem

Prof Liang He, Podium Institute inaugural faculty and head of the Healthcare Biorobotics Lab at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, was part of the organising committee of an Origami and Kirigami workshop: How Paper Folding and Cutting Have Revolutionized Soft Robotics and What’s Beyond.

In recent years Origami and Kirigami have revolutionised modern robotics by enabling highly adaptable, efficient, and flexible systems. Inspired by these ancient paper arts, researchers have developed robots capable of complex transformations for uses ranging from simple surgery to space exploration. The purpose of the workshop was to explore future possibilities, bringing together experts to tackle new challenges, spark new interest, and foster collaborations to advance origami- and kirigami-based robotics.

Kresling Origami for Personalised Wrist Orthosis

Dr Chenying Liu, Podium Institute post-doctoral researcher and Stipendiary Lecturer at Christ Church, presented her work on a novel wrist orthosis that offers a customisable and highly adaptable solution for wrist rehabilitation and strength training. A wrist orthosis, also known as a wrist brace, is a supportive device worn on the wrist to provide protection, support, and/or immobilisation. The ability to generate complex wrist motions, such as circumduction and the dart-throwing motion, makes this technology particularly relevant to sports medicine, where athletes and patients recovering from wrist injuries require precise movement control and progressive rehabilitation. This orthosis can facilitate targeted muscle engagement and mobility restoration, making it applicable not only for injury recovery but also for enhancing wrist strength and flexibility in sports training programs.

The personalised fit further ensures optimal comfort and efficiency, addressing the variability in wrist biomechanics across different individuals considering age, gender, and shape. Given the growing demand for advanced wearable rehabilitation devices in sports science and physiotherapy, this research directly contributes to improving athlete recovery protocols, reducing reinjury risks, and enhancing performance through biomechanical support.

Haptic Actuators Supporting Sports Rehabilitation

Dr Ryman Hashem, Podium post-doctoral researcher and Senior Research Fellow in Biomedical Engineering and Oliver Wing, a recent MEng Engineering Science graduate from the University of Oxford, presented their paper entitled “A Modular Dual-Mode Haptic Actuator for Low and High Frequency Feedback,” showing potential applications of haptic-embodied virtual rehabilitation and training in sports.

Under the supervision of Professor Liang He, Oliver and Ryman have been developing a dual-mode feedback system designed to deliver immersive and realistic tactile sensations. This technology can play a vital role in enhancing rehabilitation programmes and training protocols by offering athletes accurate, real-time haptic feedback. Such feedback is essential for optimising performance and minimising injury risk. By replicating the physical sensations of contacts and collisions, the system provides valuable insights into the simulation of immersive sports scenarios, empowering virtual exercise and training. These innovations also support the development of advanced human behaviour and injury models within controlled, responsive environments.

In addition to his presentation at the conference, Ryman also contributed to the Soft Robotics Mimicking Human Body for Medical Application workshop, where he delivered a talk on his research into bioinspired soft robotic systems that emulate digestive processes. This event showcased state-of-the-art soft robotic technologies aimed at overcoming key challenges in translating biomedical robotics from the lab to real-world clinical applications.

Building Stretchable Sensors Using Direct Ink Printing

Lukas Cha, a doctoral student who joined The Podium Institute in October 2024, said that presenting his paper entitled Stretchable Capacitive and Resistive Strain Sensors: Accessible Manufacturing Using Direct Ink Writing at RoboSoft 2025 was “a fantastic experience”.

Lukas’ paper introduces a novel and accessible 3-D printing method to manufacture highly stretchable sensors suitable for wearable and other robotic applications. In his paper, which he co-authors with his supervisor Prof Liang He, Lukas describes how individual strain sensors are fabricated and characterised, utilising the capacitive and resistive principle. In the future, this method shall be expanded to create sensor arrays – a collection of sensors arranged in a specific geometric pattern to gather and process information – to ultimately create a stretchable knee sleeve capable of measuring knee kinematics.

“Traveling with our team (Ryman Hashem, Chenying Liu, Liang HE) from the Podium Institute, meeting new researchers, and seeing the latest advances in soft robotics — especially in wearables and sensor technologies — was very inspiring. For me, it further underlined the potential of soft robotics for tackling sports injuries via preventative and protective wearable devices.” Lukas Cha

Image Courtesy of Prof Liang He

The future of soft robotics for sports medicine is bright and at Podium we are proud to play an important role in driving these advancements forward.