Daniela Macari
Ph.D. Student
Heisenbergstr. 3
70569 Stuttgart
Germany
Daniela Macari is a PhD student in the Robotic Materials Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. She is a Max Planck ETH Center for Learning Systems Doctoral Fellow as of fall 2021. Her research focuses on developing novel HASEL (hydraulically amplified self-healing electrostatic) actuators and investigating their application on soft robotic systems.
Daniela pursued her M.Sc. in mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Munich (Germany) und CentraleSupélec (France). Before that she earned a B.Sc. in mechanical engineering from the Technical University of Berlin (Germany). In parallel to her studies and before starting a PhD, Daniela gathered industry experience in the automotive and robotics sectors.
In her free time Daniela loves reading books, going to independent cinemas, doing science outreach and volunteering for education projects for underrepresented children and youth.
Robotic Materials Soft Robotics Artificial Muscles Functional Polymers Soft Transducers
A Soft, Fast and Versatile Electrohydraulic Gripper with Capacitive Object Size Detection
The Robotic Materials Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems has developed a new class of multi-material electrohydraulic bending actuators which enable soft and reconfigurable grippers with embodied intelligence. They actuate rapidly and conform to their target, allowing for fast and damage-free gripping of irregular, deformable and fragile objects. Each bending actuator can simultaneously be used as a capacitive sensor, enabling real-time pick verification and object size detection.