Biomedical Soft Robotics debuts in Joburg
- Wits University
Four institutions collaborate to develop core skills and resources which will form the basis for soft robotics capacity.
The electrical engineering schools at Wits University and the University of Johannesburg (UJ) recently hosted a Soft Robotics course for some 30 senior undergraduate engineering students.
The intensive course, which ran from 26th January to 2 February 2026 at Wits, was conducted by Katrien van Riet, who works on the democratisation of soft robotics and is based at AMOLF (Physics of Functional Complex Matter) and Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands.
The course was jointly funded by the Wits’ Perinatal HIV Research Unit (PHRU) and AMOLF. It will serve as a pilot study to develop soft robotics programmes in South Africa.
Soft robotics involves the creation of robots using compliant materials animated by a variety of actuation principles, including pneumatic and hydraulic systems. The applications are numerous, and in this course, the focus was on biomedical designs.
The course comprised lectures and extensive hands-on practical work in the undergraduate skills laboratory at Wits. The students were divided into six groups, and each group selected one of three challenges, which included automated blood pressure metrology and pneumatic backpack load adjustment.
The students designed and fabricated their selected products, and in the process, they learned to use custom-modified 3D printers specially acquired for this course to seal pneumatic compartments, which they had designed.
In addition, they populated printed circuit boards and assembled pneumatic circuits comprising pumps, solenoid valves and other components in order to achieve the desired functionality. On the final day of the course, each group presented their projects and demonstrated a working version of their product.
Core skills in Soft Robotics
Professor Neil Martinson from Wits’ PHRU took the lead in bringing this course to Johannesburg, with Charity Leeuw, who coordinated the implementation. Professors Suvendi Rimer (UJ) and David Rubin (Wits University) led the course and were assisted by highly capable teaching assistants.
Rubin and Rimer will work to develop the core skills and resources which will form the basis for soft robotics capacity at both institutions.