This is Betatron: Investing in Asia, a podcast for people who want to invest in Asia's future. I'm your host, Arshad Chowdhury, a partner with Betatron Venture Group.
In this episode, we’re diving into a radically different take on the future of robotics. We are joined here in Singapore by Dr. Cecilia Laschi.
Dr. Laschi is one of the world’s leading experts in soft robotics and bio-inspired robotics. She is Provost’s Chair Professor of Robotics at the National University of Singapore (NUS), where she leads the Soft Robotics Lab and serves as Director of the Advanced Robotics Centre. Her research explores how to build robots using soft materials. Drawing inspiration from animals like octopuses, she makes robots more adaptable, compliant, safe, and energy efficient. She is also Editor-in-Chief of Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, Specialty Chief Editor for Frontiers in Robotics and AI: Soft Robotics, and an IEEE Fellow.
Arshad: Thank you so much for being here, Dr. Laschi.
Dr. Laschi: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Arshad: So, you’ve been in Singapore since 2020, coming from Italy. What have you been working on recently that excites you most?
Dr. Laschi: My research is in soft robotics. What excites me is that soft robotics represents a completely different technological approach to robotics, with many advantages. There’s a lot of bio-inspiration behind it—not just using soft materials, but also applying broader principles we learn from nature. These principles often lead to more efficient mechanisms that require less computing power and less energy.
That’s important today because robotics is booming. Many robots are being produced and adopted, so efficiency matters—not only for performance and robustness but also for the sustainability of the industry.
Arshad: Let’s dig into biomimicry a little more. Nature is obviously efficient, but where are we in terms of materials? Are we really able to mimic nature?
Dr. Laschi: Of course, we cannot yet reproduce the full organization of biological tissues—cells and their interactions. But there are fascinating materials with special properties.
Some can self-heal, regaining their properties after damage, similar to how skin heals. Others are “smart materials” that move, deform, or sense under external stimuli. They resemble how tissues respond, though at a different scale.
We don’t yet have true artificial muscles, but some technologies are called that. For example, pneumatic actuators and electroactive polymers can contract in ways similar to muscles, even if the underlying principles differ.
Arshad: Fascinating. So you’ve got pliability, self-healing, and strength—all things nature has solved. But what about going the other way? Has there been work in hijacking living cells or even insects and controlling them?
Dr. Laschi: Yes, that’s an emerging area called bio-hybrid robotics. Some researchers, including colleagues at NUS, combine biological parts with technological parts—for example, using muscle cells as actuators. Since muscle cells move naturally, they can power micro-scale robots.
Others have experimented with insects, embedding electronics to influence their movement. It’s not my field, and I don’t find it as exciting, but it does exist.
Arshad: I can imagine a dark future where CRISPR is used to design animals—or even humans—integrated with machines and controlled remotely. Do you think that’s where this is headed?
Dr. Laschi: My own work doesn’t go in that direction. I focus on making robots more efficient.
Right now, robotics is driven by the hype around AI, so robots are becoming increasingly complex: more actuators, more sensors, more computing, more data. But in nature, behavior is often simple and efficient, guided by what’s called embodied intelligence—where the body mechanics and interactions with the environment reduce the need for computation.
In our lab, we even build robots without any electronics—just fluidic control systems. With a pressure input, they can walk or swim in rhythmic patterns, then stop once the energy source is gone. Some of these are made with biodegradable materials, so the robots can complete a task—like ocean restoration—and then harmlessly degrade.
Arshad: That’s incredible—cheap, biodegradable, and no retrieval needed. Do you see soft robotics incorporating AI as well?
Dr. Laschi: Yes. Electronics-free robots are an extreme, but most soft robots also integrate AI. Because they don’t follow rigid-body mechanics, traditional control methods don’t work. Instead, robots must learn their own movements—like infants making random motions to map motor commands to outcomes.
AI, particularly machine learning, is excellent for this. AI can also help design soft robots by exploring complex design spaces to find optimal forms and locomotion strategies that we might not imagine ourselves.
Arshad: I love that. But at the same time, as a VC I see humanoid robotics startups like Figure AI, valued at $39 billion, and Apptronik, which just raised $350 million. How do you see these companies?
Dr. Laschi: When I was younger, I worked with humanoid robots for neuroscience-inspired research—studying how sensory and motor coordination works. Back then, the platforms were immature, and applications weren’t compelling compared to task-specific robots.
I used to say: one day, when technology matures, humanoids might make sense. And perhaps that time is now. Still, I’m skeptical. I see impressive demos, but I don’t know what these robots can reliably do in the real world. The challenge is integrating advanced AI with sophisticated bodies—connecting “brain” and “body” smoothly, which biology does so elegantly.
Arshad: Exactly—demos show backflips and breakdancing, but in the wild humanoids are clumsy, often teleoperated. It reminds me of self-driving cars: 70–80% there, but that last 20% might take decades.
Dr. Laschi: I agree. That gap is significant. Robot bodies are impressive, and AI is powerful, but connecting them seamlessly remains difficult. Still, I don’t see it as an insurmountable roadblock—just a challenge.
Arshad: Let’s turn back to soft robotics. Where are we in terms of commercialization?
Dr. Laschi: The field is young—less than 20 years old. There are many prototypes, but only a few commercial applications so far.
The most advanced are soft grippers, which make sense in industries where objects vary in shape or are delicate—for example, food handling, agriculture, or packaging.
Another area is wearable robotics. Smart textiles and soft actuators are being used in rehabilitation devices. In Singapore, I’ve seen pharmacy gloves with soft actuators to help patients move their fingers for therapy.
So commercialization is beginning, especially in grippers and wearables.
Arshad: That makes sense. In precise industrial settings, traditional rigid robots still dominate, but in natural, unpredictable environments—where adaptability is more important—soft robotics has the edge.
Dr. Laschi: Exactly. Soft robotics shines where adaptability matters more than precision.
Arshad: This has been a fascinating conversation. Thank you, Dr. Laschi, for sharing your work. I think it will have a profound impact, and I look forward to following your future research.
Dr. Laschi: Thank you. It’s been a pleasure.
Thanks for listening. To learn more about Betatron, where we invest in fast-growing B2B startups across Asia, visit betatron.co.
