Using Softbotics To Sense The Spectrum

The radio spectrum is a fundamental resource for wireless communication. Cellular networks, WiFi, and bluetooth are all examples of wireless systems that depend on the radio spectrum. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have developed a soft antenna to better utilize radio waves, increasing connectivity and communication.

Historically, antennas are rigid metallic devices that need to be pointed in a specific direction to connect to the radio spectrum. Most programmable radios today either require mechanical or electronic switching between antennas, or wide-band antennas. With radio frequency being tunable, a static antenna can easily lose connection to the frequency. By introducing a soft, flexible antenna, the device can sense and move to the most efficient radio frequency available.

Researchers in Carnegie Mellon’s College of Engineering have developed Softenna, a first-of-its kind soft-robotic highly re-configurable antenna platform that dynamically adapts its radio frequency properties, including center frequency, beam pattern, directionality, and polarization. Softenna achieves this through a combination of mechanical and electronic re-configuration. The team presented their paper at the 2025 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Atlanta, GA this past summer.

“This is an unusual interdisciplinary project where we want to leverage advances in shape-shifting materials and surfaces from robotics for wireless antenna and meta-surface design,” says Swarun Kumar, the Sathaye Family Foundation Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, director of the WiTech Lab, and lead on the project.

Softenna is composed of fabricating multiple elements using stretchable and flexible materials and liquid metal. This smart antenna is designed to offer rich shape changes and a learning-based pipeline that studies which shape pattern is best suited to a given operating frequency, device location, and environment.

“The system will be fully implemented on soft robotic antennas integrated with software defined radios operating in the sub-6 GHz frequency bands and evaluated in these spectral bands,” says Carmel Majidi, the Clarence H. Adamson Professor of Mechanical Engineering, faculty director of the Carnegie Mellon Softbotics Lab, and co-author on the paper.

Benefits of using these soft antennas include clearer cell phone calls, faster WiFi, and smarter bluetooth connectivity.

“We are application agnostic so this concept impacts all technologies from cellular to WiFi and Bluetooth,” says Kumar.

The College of Engineering is uniquely positioned to lead research in soft antennas. With experts in emerging wireless technologies from the WiTech Lab, along with pioneers in soft robotic materials from the Soft Machines Lab, Kumar and Majidi are able to innovatively connect the fields in a way that many universities can not.

The team recently received funding from the National Science Foundation as part of the Spectrum Innovation Initiative. Throughout this three-year project, the team aims to build partnerships towards technology transfer and commercialization.

As part of educational and outreach efforts, the investigators will develop a workshop module where high school students program wireless radios during Carnegie Mellon University’s Spark Saturday program and integrate findings in university-level courses in wireless systems and robotics.