On May 19, 2023, associate professor Shuguang Li from Tsinghua University was invited by Prof. Chen Yan to visit Motion Structures Laboratory and give an interesting lecture entitled “Reconfigurable and Deformable Robotics” for all the teachers and students in the lab.

        First, Mr. Li introduced a “particle robotics” system inspired by a cue from biological cells. Compared to traditional robotics, this system yields robust and adaptable behaviors, similar to the robustness and adaptability in nature. By working together, particle robotics are able to perform various advanced clustering behaviors and functions imitating living organisms or cells, including directional migration, avoiding obstacles, and carrying objects.

        Mr. Li also introduced a novel type of multifunctional shape-shifting robotics. By wearing different origami exoskeletons, these robotics can rapidly switch between various functions, including walking, rolling, sailing, and gliding, controlled via magnets.

        Finally, Mr. Li introduced an artificial muscle actuator and an origami “magic ball” gripper. The artificial muscle add strength to soft robotics, allowing them to lift objects that are up to 1,000 times their own weight using only air or water pressure, giving much-needed strength to soft robotics. When installed inside a rigid cylinder, the artificial muscle can produce an enormous driving force several times larger than the traditional piston’s without friction loss, which greatly improves energy conversion efficiency. Another novel gripper consisting of an origami “magic-ball” skeleton and a flexible thin membrane is also introduced here, which is able to grasp a large variety of different objects with sufficient robustness and a large grasp force.

        Mr. Li is currently an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Tsinghua University. Current research interests include cluster robotics, origami/folding robotics, soft robotics, and life-like robotics, especially AI-based automated design, self-assembly, self-organization, and adaptive techniques for robotics. In recent years, many academic papers have been published in Nature, PNAS, Nature Communications, and other top journals.