The recent decade has seen an astounding increase of interest and advancement in a new field of robotics, aimed at creating structures specifically for the safe interaction with humans. Softness, flexibility, and variable stiffness in robotics have been recognized as highly desirable characteristics for many applications. Dr Helge Wurdemann has published over 45 peer-reviewed papers in journals and at international premium conferences in robotics and was Co-I on EU projects STIFF-FLOP and FourbyThree.