Author ORCID Identifier
Date of Award
Spring 5-6-2025
Document Type
Thesis (Ph.D.)
Department or Program
Computer Science
First Advisor
Devin Balkcom
Abstract
The rapid advancement of robotics necessitates systems capable of adapting to complex, unstructured environments. Soft robots, with their flexibility and compliance, excel in delicate interactions, making them ideal for medical applications and search-and-rescue missions. Modular robots, on the other hand, offer reconfigurability, enabling diverse task-specific adaptations in dynamic settings. Despite their individual advantages, the integration of soft and modular robotics remains underexplored. This proposal aims to develop soft modular robots that combine the adaptability of soft robotics with the versatility of modularity. These systems will be capable of autonomously transitioning between locomotion, manipulation, and infrastructure assembly across land, water, and air.
This research is motivated by the limitations of traditional industrial robots, which are confined to predefined, repetitive tasks in controlled settings. In contrast, disaster response, environmental monitoring, and infrastructure development demand robots capable of role transitions in unstructured environments. However, soft robots often lack the structural integrity for load-bearing tasks, while modular robots struggle with compliance for sensitive interactions. Integrating these paradigms introduces key challenges, including (i) balancing mechanical adaptability and load-bearing capacity through stiffness-tunable mechanisms, (ii) developing robust self-reconfigurable architectures, (iii) enabling autonomy via real-time sensing and planning, and (iv) optimizing configurations for task-specific adaptation using data-driven approaches.
This proposal will explore four key directions: (1) tensegrity-inspired soft modular robots for deployable infrastructure such as shelters and bridges, (2) aquatic soft modular robots for trash collection, amphibious locomotion, and drone landing, (3) bioinspired soft modular robots, including dolphin-like designs for efficient fluid movement and (4) STEM education kits to make biomimetic soft modular robotics accessible for education and research.
By addressing these challenges, this research aims to develop adaptive, multifunctional robotic systems capable of autonomous decision-making and real-time adaptation in complex environments.
Original Citation
Zhao, Luyang, Jiang, Yitao, Chen, Muhao, Bekris, Kostas, & Balkcom, Devin. Modular Shape-changing Tensegrity-Blocks Enable Self-assembling Robotic Structures. Nature Communications, accepted 2025.
Zhao, Luyang, Jiang, Yitao, She, Chun-Yi, & Balkcom, Devin. Softrafts: Floating and Adaptive Soft Modular Robots. 2025.
Zhao, Luyang, Jiang, Yitao, She, Chun-Yi, Balkcom, Devin, Dong, Haibo, & Chen, Muhao. Design of a Lightweight Robotic Tensegrity Morphing Airfoil. In: AIAA SCITECH, AIAA, 2025.
Zhao, Luyang, Jiang, Yitao, She, Chun-Yi, Chen, Muhao, & Balkcom, Devin. SoftSnap: Rapid Prototyping of Untethered Soft Robots Using Snap-Together Modules. Soft Robotics, accepted 2025.
Zhao, Luyang, Jiang, Yitao, She, Chun-Yi, Jeong, Mingi, Dong, Haibo, Quattrini Li, Alberto, Chen, Muhao, & Balkcom, Devin. An Untethered Bioinspired Robotic Tensegrity Dolphin with Multi-Flexibility Design for Aquatic Locomotion. In: Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft), 2025.
Zhao, Luyang, Putman, Josiah, Wang, Weifu, & Balkcom, Devin. PLRC*: A Piecewise Linear Regression Complex for Approximating Optimal Robot Motion. In: 2020 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), pp. 6681–6688, 2020.
Zhao, Luyang, Wu, Yijia, Blanchet, Julien, Perroni-Scharf, Maxine, Huang, Xiaonan, Booth, Joran, Kramer-Bottiglio, Rebecca, & Balkcom, Devin. Soft Lattice Modules That Behave Independently and Collectively. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 7(3): 5942–5949, 2022.
Zhao, Luyang, Wu, Yijia, Yan, Wenzhong, Zhan, Weishu, Huang, Xiaonan, Booth, Joran, Mehta, Ankur, Bekris, Kostas, Kramer-Bottiglio, Rebecca, & Balkcom, Devin. StarBlocks: Soft Actuated Self-Connecting Blocks for Building Deformable Lattice Structures. IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 8(8): 4521–4528, 2023.
Ma, Weicheng, Zhao, Luyang, She, Chun-Yi, Jiang, Yitao, Sun, Alan, Zhu, Bo, Balkcom, Devin, & Vosoughi, Soroush. On the Exploration of LM-Based Soft Modular Robot Design. arXiv preprint, 2024. https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.00345
Jiang, Yitao, Zhao, Luyang, Quattrini Li, Alberto, Chen, Muhao, & Balkcom, Devin. Exploring Spontaneous Social Interaction Swarm Robotics Powered by Large Language Models. 2025.
Recommended Citation
Zhao, Luyang, "Soft Modular Robots: From Modular Tensegrity Structures to Bioinspired Sea Robots" (2025). Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations. 377.
https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/dissertations/377
