Dr Andrew Conn

Summary

My research revolves around the application of biological inspiration to solve challenging engineering problems. The integration of elasticity and compliance into systems such robots is central to this, driven by the potential for great improvements in human-robot interaction, prosthetic devices and robot mobility in unstructured environments. The primary focus of my research involves the development of soft actuation technologies such as electro-active polymers, which possess actuation characteristics comparable to biological muscle. Recent research highlights have included advancements in elastomeric actuator fabrication techniques, scalable multiple degree of freedom actuators and the development of artificial chromatophores for soft visual displays.

Latest publications:

(1) Conn, A.T. and Rossiter, J. (2012) Harnessing electromechanical membrane wrinkling for actuation. Applied Physics Letters, 101, 171906. http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4764101

(2) Sareh, S. Rossiter, J., Conn, A., Drescher, K. and Goldstein, R.E. (2012) Swimming like algae: biomimetic soft artificial cilia. Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 10, 20120666.. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2012.0666

(3) Conn, A.T. and Rossiter, J. (2012) Smart radially folding structures. IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, 17(5), pp. 968 – 957.

Keywords

• Biologically-inspired design Robotics Artificial muscles Electro-active polymers Novel actuators and sensors Micro air vehicles

Memberships

Organisations

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Bristol Robotics Laboratory

Research Groups

• Robotics
• Robotics - Core

Recent publications

• Sareh, S, Rossiter, JM, Conn, AT, Drescher, K & Goldstein, R 2012, ‘Swimming like algae: biomimetic soft artificial cilia’. Royal Society Interface.
• Conn, A, J., PM, G., PA, Jason, W & Rossiter, J 2012, ‘Dielectric elastomer vibrissal system for active tactile sensing’. in: Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2012.
• Herrmann, G, Studley, M, Conn, AT, Melhuish, CR, Witkowski, M, Kim, J & Vadakkepat, P 2012, ‘Advances in Autonomous Robotics: Joint Proceedings of the 13th Annual TAROS Conference and the 15th Annual FIRA RoboWorld Congress’. Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg
• Conn, A & Rossiter, J 2012, ‘Towards holonomic electro-elastomer actuators with six degrees of freedom’. Smart Materials and Structures, vol 21., pp. 035012 - 035020
• Rossiter, J, Yap, B & Conn, A 2012, ‘Biomimetic chromatophores for camouflage and soft active surfaces’. Bioinspiration and Biomimetics, vol 7., pp. 1 - 10
• Conn, A & Rossiter, J 2012, ‘Smart Radially Folding Structures’. IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, vol 17., pp. 968 - 975
• Conn, AT & Rossiter, JM 2012, ‘Harnessing electromechanical membrane wrinkling for actuation’. Applied Physics Letters, vol 101.
• Conn, A, Seng, LC & Burgess, S 2011, ‘Biomimetic analysis of insect wing kinematics for flapping MAVs’. International Journal of Micro Air Vehicles, vol 3., pp. 1 - 11
• Conn, A & Rossiter, J 2011, ‘Antagonistic dielectric elastomer actuator for biologically inspired robotics’. in: Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) 2011.
• Araromi, O, Conn, A, Ling, C, Rossiter, J, Vaidyanathan, R & Burgess, S 2011, ‘Spray Deposited Multilayered Dielectric Elastomer Actuators’. Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, vol 167., pp. 459 - 467

View complete publications list in the University of Bristol publications system

Courses

Dr Conn currently teaches 2 courses: