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SAPHIR / 02 What we do

Soft bodies, a sense of touch, and the intelligence to use them. Three directions that meet whenever a robot makes physical contact with the world.

03 directions Stiffness map · move the cursor to probe
Hover to magnify ×2.5
FIG.01 SOFT / EVERSION 20 MM BASE · P SPOOLED BODY PRESSURE CHAMBER AIR IN OBSTACLE OBSTACLE CLEARANCE CLEARANCE OUTER WALL · THIN PE FILM · STATIONARY RELATIVE TO THE ENVIRONMENT · OUTER WALL · THIN PE FILM INNER MATERIAL FEEDS FORWARD → → → EVERTS AT THE TIP → → → TIP GROWTH

Eversion length

888000 mm

E-skin · 0/16 near

Base → tip

Pressure · 0.0 kPa

01 — Direction

Soft robotics

We build robots from soft, compliant materials so they can bend, grow and squeeze through spaces that rigid machines cannot reach.

One example is the everting robot, which grows from its tip. Because its body does not slide against its surroundings, it can move through narrow and delicate places, such as passages inside the human body.

  • Eversion
  • Continuum robots
  • Compliant actuation
Project Project website ↗

EndoTheranostics

A soft everting robot for colorectal cancer screening and treatment

A perceptive soft robot with a sleeve-like body grows deep into the colon and becomes a channel for miniaturised diagnostic and therapeutic instruments.

It is designed to cleanse the colon painlessly before inspection, find polyps and characterise tissue in real time with AI-assisted multimodal imaging, and remove polyps inside a miniature mobile operating chamber with microsurgical tools.

Our group develops the soft everting robot at the heart of the system.

Funding
ERC Synergy Grant, €10m
Target
Colorectal cancer
Principal investigators
K. Althoefer (QMUL), A. Arezzo (Turin), B. Siciliano (Naples Federico II), S. Ourselin (KCL)
Note
The first ERC Synergy Grant awarded at Queen Mary

In our group

Concept animation of the EndoTheranostics system. Video: EndoTheranostics consortium.
Touch with the cursor · click to press
FIG.02 TACTILE / TAXEL ARRAY 20 MM T01 T02 T03 T04 T05 T06 T07 T08 T09 T10 T11 T12 T13 T14 T15 T16 T17 T18 T19 T20 T21 T22 T23 T24 T25 T26 T27 T28 T29 T30 T31 T32 T33 T34 T35 T36 T37 T38 T39 T40 T41 T42 T43 T44 T45 T46 T47 T48 T49 T50 T51 T52 T53 T54 T55 T56 T57 T58 T59 T60 T61 T62 T63 T64 T65 T66 T67 T68 T69 T70 T71 T72 72 TAXELS · INTERDIGITATED ELECTRODES · ROW-COLUMN SCAN TOUCH THE SKIN CONTACT · PEAK F ROW 04

Normal force

8.880.00 N

No contact

Shear force

8.880.00 N

---° · from motion

Normal / shear

02 — Direction

Sensing & interaction

We develop tactile sensors and sensing skins that let a robot feel where it is being touched and how hard.

This contact information helps robots handle objects gently, recognise what they are touching, and work safely next to people.

  • Tactile sensing
  • Sensing skins
  • Haptic perception
Project Project website ↗

PALPABLE

Bringing the sense of touch back to minimally invasive surgery

In open surgery a surgeon can feel tissue with their fingers; in keyhole surgery that sense of palpation is lost, and today's surgical systems cannot give it back.

PALPABLE is building a finger-like palpation tool that feels tissue stiffness and shows it to the surgeon, to help tell healthy tissue from tumour during minimally invasive surgery.

Funding
EU Horizon Europe, grant no. 101092518
Duration
48 months, from January 2023
Consortium
10 partners from 7 European countries, coordinated by Tech Hive Labs
Our part
Soft robot and sensor fabrication, prototyping and testing

In our group

  1. 01

    Soft pneumatic tip

    A thin, pneumatically actuated end-effector with proprioceptive sensing, for more freedom of motion and accurate positioning.

  2. 02

    Distributed tactile probe

    A tactile sensing array that presses on tissue to tell healthy from cancerous tissue.

  3. 03

    Photonic read-out

    A non-planar photonics circuit that interrogates the tactile sensor array.

  4. 04

    Distance sensing

    A distance-sensing module that gives a visual map of the organ being examined.

  5. 05

    Stiffness reconstruction

    Software that rebuilds the tissue's stiffness profile and presents it to the surgeon.

Hover to magnify ×2.5
FIG.03 AUTONOMY / REACH 20 MM {B} TARGET LOCK SOFT OBJECT PLANNED APPROACH BASE FRAME DEPTH CAMERA D = 0.42 M q1 q2 q3 TCP

Distance to target

888120 mm

Grasp decision · pending 0/3

1 Vision Wait
2 Planner Wait
3 Touch Wait
  1. Lock
  2. Grasp
  3. Lift
  4. Place
  5. Release

03 — Direction

Robot autonomy

We combine sensing with models of the robot and the world around it, so that robots can decide how to move with less human guidance.

This covers reaching and grasping, moving through cluttered spaces, and modelling how a tool interacts with its environment.

  • Modelling
  • Navigation
  • Manipulation

From our papers

Work by topic

38 publications, grouped by the topics they address.

Research topics

Soft robotics

All papers →

Eversion (vine) robots, fabric and silicone actuators, and soft grippers that bend, grow and squeeze.

  1. A Multi-Vine Soft Robot Enabling Accessible Working Channel and Steering

    Kashef R, Suulker C, Sheikhsofla M, Althoefer K

    Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics · 2026

    Reza Kashef Reza Kashef Cem Süülker Cem Süülker Mohammad Sheikhsofla Mohammad Sheikhsofla Kaspar Althoefer Kaspar Althoefer
    DOI ↗

  2. A Soft Robotic Interface for Chick-Robot Affective Interactions

    Chen J, Mielke A, Althoefer K, Versace E

    arXiv preprint · 2026

    Jue Chen Jue Chen Kaspar Althoefer Kaspar Althoefer
    DOI ↗

  3. Buoyancy Actuation of an Underwater Soft Robot Arm through Inflation with Incompressible Fluids

    Kaleel D, Lalitharatne TD, Baker AG, Wurdemann HA, Clément B, Althoefer K

    SSRN preprint · 2026

    Danyaal Mohamed Kaleel Danyaal Mohamed Kaleel Kaspar Althoefer Kaspar Althoefer
    DOI ↗

  4. Enabling High-Curvature Navigation in Eversion Robots through Buckle-Inducing Constrictive Bands

    Suulker C, Haimus MA, Mack T, Sheikhsofla M, Dei NN, Kashef R, Sadati H, Barontini F, Ficuciello F, Arezzo A, Siciliano B, Althoefer K

    arXiv preprint · 2026

    Cem Süülker Cem Süülker Thomas Christopher Mack Thomas Christopher Mack Mohammad Sheikhsofla Mohammad Sheikhsofla Neri Niccolò Dei Neri Niccolò Dei Reza Kashef Reza Kashef Kaspar Althoefer Kaspar Althoefer
    DOI ↗

Applications