Research Overview
Towards Robots with More Lifelike Movement Capabilities
Dynamic body models integrating active-soft materials and multi-scale manufacturing methods as novel instruments for biologists studying animal locomotion.
Animals move through complex environments with a level of robustness that remains difficult for robots to match. They climb, swim, land, recover from impacts, and exploit contact using bodies that are compliant, sensor-rich, and mechanically intelligent. My group develops robotic systems that translate these biological principles into engineered movement capabilities.
The work integrates active-soft materials, embedded sensing, multiscale manufacturing, and control to create dynamic robotic body models. These robots are both scientific instruments for studying locomotion and engineering platforms for developing new movement strategies. By changing body stiffness, tail function, sensor feedback, and contact mechanics in controlled robotic experiments, we can test how morphology and control interact to produce robust locomotion.
Current research directions include soft robotic swimmers with tunable body stiffness, legged robots that negotiate obstacles and unstable terrain, tailed robots that use appendages for balance and recovery, and physical models that reveal how animals exploit impacts and contact transitions. These systems help identify principles for future robots that move safely and effectively in unstructured environments.
The broader goal is to create a new generation of robots whose bodies contribute actively to sensing, control, stability, and adaptation. Such robots can also reduce reliance on invasive biological experiments by serving as animated physical models for testing hypotheses about animal movement.