RESSORT at a Glance
Bringing Soft Robotics from the Laboratory to Real-World Use
RESSORT – Resilient Efficient Soft and Sustainable Optimized Robotics Technology – responds to Europe’s need for robotic systems that are safer around people, more adaptable to changing conditions and more sustainable across their lifecycle. While conventional rigid robots offer precision and speed, they are often less suitable for human-centred, fragile or unstructured environments.
Soft robotics offers a different approach. By using compliant and multifunctional materials, soft robots can deform, absorb impact and adapt to people, objects and surroundings. However, widespread adoption is still constrained by limited durability, insufficient payload, sensing drift, complex manufacturing, difficult modelling and control, unclear certification pathways and a shortage of high-TRL validation evidence.
RESSORT addresses these interconnected barriers through a complete technology-to-market pathway. The project develops and integrates self-healing materials, variable-stiffness structures, soft tactile sensing, advanced design and multi-material manufacturing, and AI-based adaptive control. The resulting technologies will be integrated into existing robotic platforms wherever possible, supporting adoption without unnecessary infrastructure replacement.
The RESSORT Concept
Three core technology families – self-healing materials, variable stiffness and three-dimensional touch sensors – are connected through enabling layers of advanced manufacturing and intelligent control. The project will assess these technologies at component, subsystem and integrated-system level, then validate them through demonstrators in healthcare, food logistics and industrial inspection.
- Co-create requirements and measurable KPIs with end users and technical stakeholders
- Mature materials, structures, sensing, design tools, manufacturing processes and control methods
- Integrate the technologies into three operational demonstrators
- Generate evidence for safety, ethics, sustainability, standards and certification readiness
- Prepare business models, exploitation routes and commercialisation roadmaps
- Share reusable knowledge, tools, datasets and training resources through open channels
Project Facts
| Full title | Resilient Efficient Soft and Sustainable Optimized Robotics Technology |
|---|---|
| Acronym | RESSORT |
| Grant Agreement | 101296768 |
| Program | Horizon Europe |
| Type of action | Innovation Action |
| Topic | HORIZON-CL4-2025-04-DIGITAL-EMERGING-05 |
| Granting authority | European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) |
| Coordinator | Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) |
| Duration | 48 months |
| Start date | 1 October 2026 |
| End date | 30 September 2030 |
| Consortium | 14 beneficiaries across Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Greece, Norway, Germany and Switzerland |
European Relevance
RESSORT supports a human-centred digital transition by developing robots that can collaborate more safely with people and function in environments that are difficult for rigid systems.
Its focus on repairability, longer component lifetime, sustainability-aware design and European-developed materials and AI contributes to European ambitions in digital leadership, circularity, strategic autonomy and responsible innovation.