Jonathan Rossiter, B.Eng.

Professor Jonathan Rossiter is Head of SoftLab, the Soft Robotics Group in the Bristol Robotics Laboratory. He leads on the development of smart materials and highly flexible soft robots for applications ranging from human health and environmental protection to construction and smart clothing. His work includes major research projects on soft robotic implantable medical devices, power trousers, and printable, biodegradable and edible robots. His work on environmental protection and low-cost healthcare includes collaborations with India and Africa, tracking and removing pollutants in waterways and investigating low cost prosthetic interfaces. His core soft robotics technologies have been extended to investigate the state of pipes, ducts and roads. Professor Rossiter's background is in artificial intelligence, electrical engineering, computer science and engineering mathematics. He was awarded a Royal Society Fellowship to study robots in Japan and a EPSRC Research Fellowship. His current post is funded by a Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies award, and aims to make soft robotics ubiquitous. He has presented a Ted Talk on 'A Robot That Eats Pollution', which has had more than 1.3 million views, and has had significant global media interest in his work. Most prominently, his project on the use of ‘smart trousers’ received widespread acclaim, for its approach to using artificial muscles to improve the lives of people with mobility problems.