Reframing Soft Robotics through Biodesign: A longitudinal study of Biobotics in Design Education

Abstract

This paper explores bio-based soft actuators as an emerging design-oriented innovation in Human Computer Interaction (HCI), examining how their adoption evolves within distributed, hybrid, lab-based educational programs. Through a longitudinal corpus analysis of the Fabricademy course open repository, the study analyses how participants integrate biomaterials into a soft robotics learning module and final projects. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods, the research traces the development of “biobotic” practices, revealing adoption supported by peer referencing and shared fabrication workflows. Two final projects illustrate iterative development and applications in HCI contexts. The findings identify persistent challenges, heterogeneous documentation quality and key affordances of bio-based actuators. Building on these insights, the paper discusses how biodesign challenges current practices in soft robotics design education and positions the repository as a living archive enabling iterative prototyping and sustainable material-driven interaction design.