Clarence H. Adamson Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Courtesy Appointments, Biomedical Engineering, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Robotics Institute
Carmel Majidi’s career mission is to discover materials, hardware architectures, and fabrication methods that allow robots and machines to behave like soft biological organisms, and be safe for contact with humans. The aim is to replace the bulky and rigid hardware in existing robots with soft, lightweight, and deformable technologies that match the functionality of natural biological tissue. Currently, his group is focused on filled-elastomer composites and soft microfluidic systems that exhibit unique combinations of mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties and can function as “artificial” skin, nervous tissue, and muscle for soft robotics and wearables. He’s particularly interested in approaches that are practical from a rapid prototyping and robotics implementation perspective. This includes efforts to enable robust mechanical and electrical interfacing between soft-matter systems and conventional microelectronics and hardware.
2007 Ph.D., EECS, University of California, Berkeley
2001 BS, CEE, Cornell University
CMU Engineering
Researchers in the Department of Mechanical Engineering used fossil evidence to engineer a soft robotic replica of pleurocystitids, a marine organism that existed nearly 450 million years ago and is believed to be one of the first echinoderms capable of movement using a muscular stem.
BuiltIn
MechE’s Carmel Majidi talks to BuiltIn about shape-shifting robots. “This technology introduces new capabilities to achieve robotic functions at the small scale in hard-to-reach places,” he says.
Communications of the ACM
MechE’s Carmel Majidi explains the impact soft robotics, such as exoskeletons, artificial skins, and flexible electronics, will have on society.
Pittsburgh Business Times
MechE’s Carmel Majidi has been awarded the 2023 Inno Fire Award for Trailblazing Innovators from the Pittsburgh Business Times.
CMU Engineering
New research from Burak Ozdoganlar, Carmel Majidi, and Kadri Burga Ozutemiz seeks to develop a scalable manufacturing method that combines the best of quality and quantity on a miniature scale, with the potential to reimagine how wearable medical devices are made.
The Data-driven Discovery of Optimized Multifunctional Material Systems has announced two new projects made possible with support from the Air Force Research Laboratory. Both will focus on how machine learning can contribute to the development of functional soft materials. CEE’s Kaushik Dayal and MechE’s Carmel Majidi will collaborate on one of the projects, while ChemE’s Gabe Gomes will work on the other.
CMU Engineering
Carnegie Mellon Researchers have taken inspiration from geckos to create a material that adheres to wet and dry surfaces, even on an incline.
CMU Engineering
We are one step closer to naturally compostable robots now that researchers at Carnegie Mellon can print actuators using a bio-ink made from seaweed.
NextPittsburgh
MechE’s Carmel Majidi spoke with NextPittsburgh about CMU’s Soft Machines Lab and its research in soft robotics.
Scientific American
MechE’s Carmel Majidi talks about a new low-density gel material that is able to conduct electricity to power a motor in Scientific American. “There are so many possibilities that arise when you take machines and robots out of the hard case and engineer them out of materials that are soft and squishy,” Majidi says.
World Economic Forum
MechE’s Carmel Majidi spoke to the World Economic Forum about softbotics and their capabilities. “Matching how animals transition from walking to swimming to crawling to jumping is a grand challenge for bio-inspired and soft robotics,” Majidi said.
Science Friday
MechE’s Carmel Majidi talks with Science Friday about a new breakthrough in the field of softbotics: a new material that is able to heal itself.