I am an Assistant Professor in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, where I lead the Zoom Lab. I’m interested in bio-inspired solutions to increase mechanical intelligence in robots and robotic components.
Current robots are primarily rigid machines that exist in highly constrained or open environments such as factory floors, warehouses, or fields. There is an increasing demand for more adaptable, mobile, and flexible robots that can manipulate or move through complex environments. This problem is currently being addressed in two complementary ways: (i) learning and control algorithms to enable the robot to better sense and adapt to the surrounding environment and (ii) embedded intelligence in mechanical structures. My vision is to create robots that can mechanically conform to the environment or objects that they interact with to alleviate the need for high-speed, high-accuracy, and high-precision controllers. I pursue this goal by developing compliant mechanisms for manipulators and robots, teaching classes focusing on bio-inspiration and unconventional robotics, and engaging with the community to increase interest in science and engineering.
Research Topics
- Biologically Inspired and Evolutionary Robotics
- Micro/Nanorobots
- Robots with Flexible Elements
- Parallel Mechanism and Robots
- Medical Robotics and Computer-Integrated Surgery
- Mechanisms and Actuation
- Kinematics
- Dynamics
- Sensing and Estimation
- Soft Robotics
- Robots for Education
- Manipulation & Interfaces
- Contact Modeling and Manipulation
- Robot Structures
- Motion Control
- Sensing & Perception
- Human-Centered Robotics
- Field & Service Robotics
- Robotics for Scientific Discovery
