Welcome to Smart Robotics Lab!
Welcome to Smart Robotics Lab!
Smart Robotics Lab's current research focus:
Smart material and artificial muscle technologies
Biomimetic robots, soft robots, and assistive robots
What's New?
2025
06: [Paper] Scalable electroactive textile production using twisted silver-plated nylon yarn is accpted by Smart Materials and Structures
06: Dr. Zhang is promoted to Associate Professor (effective July 1st)
06: Alex is chosen as an awardee of the Pack Research Experience Program (PREP) at UNR, congratulations!
03: [Paper] Our Perspective paper Ply for a large stroke appears in Science. It discusses coiled artificial muscles. This work is featured on Nevada Today, congratulations!
01: [Paper] Enhanced modeling of twisted string actuators with low-torque motors accounting for strings’ friction and opposing torque is accepted for presentation by the 2025 American Control Conference (ACC)
01: Manav and Dylan received the Nevada Undergraduate Research Award (NURA), congratulations!
01: [Paper] Ink-bath interactions in embedded ink writing for producing functional parts is accepted by Advanced Materials Technologies
2024
11: Kurt discusses his research experience at UNR, and his research experience was featured on Nevada Today, congratulations!
09: Dr. Zhang is elected to be the Secretary of the Mechatronics Technical Committee of the ASME Dynamic Systems & Control Division
07: [Funding] Project "Modeling, self-sensing, and control of novel coiled string actuators with application to compliant manipulation" is funded by National Science Foundation. J. Zhang (PI). Total Award Amount: $299,994
07: [Paper] Model-based performance analysis of twisted string actuators with comparison to spooled motor tendon-driven actuators is accepted by IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
06: [Funding] Project "REU Site: Exploring intelligent technologies shaping future smart cities" is funded by National Science Foundation. P. Fajri (PI), X. Fu (Co-PI), H. Livani (SP), H. Xu (SP), S. Fadali (SP), J. Zhang (SP), R. Subramanian (SP), S. Sengupta (SP). Total Award Amount: $465,000
04: Kurt received the Nevada NASA Space Grant Consortium (NVSGC) Undergraduate Scholarship, congratulations!
02: Prof. Allison Okamura from Stanford University visited our group, welcome!
02: [Seminar/Talks] Dr. Zhang gave a seminar in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), titled "Novel twisted string artificial muscles for compliant, compact, and dexterous robots”
01: [Paper] Modeling and inverse compensation of the non-smooth coiling-induced actuation in twisted and coiled string actuators is accepted for presentation by the 2024 American Control Conference (ACC)
2023
11: Revanth completed his PhD degree, and is heading to Dr. Jaydev Desai's group at Georgia Tech to start his postdoc, congratulations!
11: Thulani completed his PhD degree, and will start his job as a Staff Design Engineer at Johnson & Johnson in Southern California, congratulations!
10: MECC 2023 in Lake Tahoe is successfully completed. UNR is a silver sponsor, Dr. Zhang is the Local Arrangement Chair, and many UNR students helped with the conference operation as volunteers
08: Revanth is chosen as a Rising Star in MECC 2024, he will present his research in MECC 2024, congratulations!
06: [Paper] Hybrid 3D printing of functional smart hinges is accepted by Machines
05: [Paper] Kinetostatic modeling and open-loop control of a twisted string actuator-driven soft robotic manipulator is accepted by Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics
04: [Paper] Kinematic modeling of a twisted-string actuated soft robotic finger as part of an anthropomorphic gripper is accepted for presentation by the 2023 Modeling, Estimation, and Control Conference (MECC)
04: [Seminar/Talk] Dr. Zhang gave a talk during the Nevada Space Grant and NASA EPSCoR Statewide Meeting in Carson City, Nevada,
04: [Paper] STAR–2: A soft twisted-string-actuated anthropomorphic robotic gripper: Design, fabrication, and preliminary testing is accepted for presentation by the 2023 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM). Aaron gave a well-received presentation in Seattle later in July.
04: Revanth was recognized during UNR's Honor the Best for Outstanding Graduate Student this year! He is the only recipient campus-wide to receive this award. Congratulations
02: Aaron is offered the UNR Graduate Dean's Merit Scholarship, starting Fall 2023, congratulations!
2022
12: [Paper] Overtwisting and coiling highly enhances strain generation of twisted string actuators is accepted by Soft Robotics
12: [Paper] Material extrusion of helical shape memory polymer artificial muscles for human space exploration apparatus is accepted by Polymers
11: [Paper] A biomimetic multi-directional HASEL actuator-driven soft robotic tail: Design and characterization is accepted for presentation by the 2023 SPIEElectroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) Conference in LongBeach, CA
11: Prof. Veronica Santos from UCLA visited our group, welcome!
11: [Paper] Experimental investigation of the non-smooth actuation in twisted and coiled string artificial muscles is accepted for presentation by the 2023 SPIE Bioinspiration, Biomimetics, and Bioreplication Conference in Long Beach, CA
10: [Paper] Anthropomorphic twisted string actuated soft robotic gripper with tendon-based stiffening is accepted by IEEE Transactions on Robotics
10: Revanth is offered the UNR Graduate Dean's Merit Scholarship, starting Fall 2023, congratulations!
09: [Seminar/Talks] Dr. Zhang gave a seminar in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the UC Riverside, titled "Twisted string artificial muscles for compliant, compact, and dexterous robots”
09: [Paper] Inverse modeling for component selection of twisted string actuators is accepted by IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics. We open-sourced the design algorithm and a graphical user interface
08: Steven is heading to UT Austin to start his MS this fall, congrats, and good luck!
07: [Funding] Project "Modeling and performance analysis of self-sensing twisted string actuators with application to lightweight and energy-efficient centimeter-scale tensegrity robots" is funded by Nevada NASA SpaceGrant Consortium. J. Zhang (PI). TotalAward Amount: $45,933.
07: [Seminar/Talks] Dr. Zhang gave a presentation during the 2022 National Workshop on Human-like Robots, titled "Compliant and self-sensing twisted string actuators for robotic manipulators and graspers”
06: [Paper] Parameter estimation and adaptive control of super-coiled polymer artificial muscles is accepted for presentation by the 2022 Modeling, Estimation, and Control Conference (MECC)
05: Our IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters paper Experimental characterization and modeling of the self-sensing property in compliant twisted string actuators won an IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters Best Paper Award, congratulations!
05: Funding: Dr. Zhang received the UNR Research & Innovation Research Enhancement Grant. Total Award Amount: $19,999
05: David completed his M.S. degree, and is heading to Harvard University to start his Ph.D. this fall, good luck!
05: [Paper] Leader-followerStackelberg game-oriented adaptive robust constraint-following control design for fuzzy exoskeleton robot systems is accepted by Information Sciences
05: [Paper] Parameter estimation and adaptive control of twisted string actuators, and Design and characterization of AWARD: An active wearable assistive and resistive device are accepted for presentation by the 2022 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM)
05: David received the Best Poster Award (1st place) in our UNR Mechanical Engineering Poster Contest. Congratulations!
04: Revanth was recognized during the Honor the Best event at UNR for Outstanding Graduate Student Researcher. He is the only recipient campus-wide to receive this award. Congratulations!
03: David Bombara, Ember Chow, and Ryan Coulter are offered the prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowships Program (GRFP) Fellowship. David worked in our lab between 10/2018 and 08/2022. Ember worked in our lab between 06/2021 and 08/2021. Ryan worked in our lab between 04/2019 and 05/2021. Congratulations!
01: [Paper] Physics-based kinematic modeling of a twisted string actuator-driven soft robotic manipulator is accepted for presentation by the 2022 American Control Conference (ACC)
2021
12: Steven is recognized as the Senior Scholar at the College of Engineering at UNR, congratulations!
11: [Funding] Project "Highly enhanced performance of twisted string actuators with application to continuum manipulators" is funded by Intuitive Surgical, Inc. J. Zhang (PI). Total Award Amount: $60,000
11: Jennifer presented her research on wearable soft robots during the UNR's Undergraduate ResearchSymposium, good job!
11: [Seminar/Talk] Dr. Zhang gave a seminar in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alabama, titled "Twisted string artificial muscles for compliant and versatile robots”
08: [Paper] A Compact, compliant, and biomimetic robotic assistive glove driven by twisted string actuators is accepted by International Journal of Intelligent Robotics and Applications
07: [Paper] A compliant robotic wrist orthosis driven by twisted string actuators on robotic wrist orthosis is accepted for presentation by the 2021 IEEE International Symposium on Medical Robotics (ISMR)
07: [Paper] Design, characterization, modeling, and comparison of helically wrapped super-coiled polymer artificial muscles is accepted by Sensors and Actuators: A. Physical
07: [Paper] Hysteresis with lonely stroke in artificial muscles: Characterization, modeling, and inverse compensation is accepted by Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing
06: [Paper] A twisted string actuator-driven soft robotic manipulator is accepted for presentation by the 2021 Modeling, Estimation, and Control Conference (MECC)
06: [Funding] Robotics curriculum development for College of Engineering at UNR" is funded by Nevada NASA SpaceGrant Consortium. J. Zhang (PI). Total Award Amount: $25,000
05: Revanth is offered the 2021-2022 DifferentialFee Graduate Research Assistantship at UNR, congratulations!
04: [Funding] Project "Design, fabrication, and testing of a robotic gripper powered by compliant and self-sensing twisted string actuators" is funded by NASA. J. Zhang (PI). David Bombara (Student participant). Total Award Amount: $67,025
03: Bethany is offered the NSF Graduate ResearchFellowships Program (GRFP) Fellowship. She worked in our lab since 12/2019. Congratulations!
01: [Paper] Modeling and inverse compensation of the quasi-static voltage-strain lonely stroke and hysteresis in supercoiled polymer artificial muscles is accepted for presentation by the 2021 American Control Conference (ACC)
01: [Paper] Experimental characterization and modeling of the self-sensing property in compliant twisted string actuators is accepted by IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. This work is also chosen for presentation at the 2021 IEEE InternationalConference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft)
2020
10: [Paper] Compliant, large-strain, and self-sensing twisted string actuators is accepted by Soft Robotics
07: [Paper] Decentralized function approximated Q-learning in multi-robot systems for predator avoidance is accepted by IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters.
06: [Funding] Project "Advanced Manufacturing and Characterization of Self-coiled Polymer Muscles with Application to WearableResistive Exo-gloves" is funded by Nevada NASA Space Grant Consortium. Y. Jin(PI), J. Zhang (Co-PI). Total Award Amount: $52,784.
05: [Funding] Project "Enhancing system dynamics, control, and robotics education and research with robot manipulators" is funded by UNR College of Engineering Differential Fee Committee. J. Zhang (PI). Total Award Amount: $54,000.
03: David is offered the UNR Graduate Dean's Merit Scholarship, starting Fall 2020, congratulations!
02: [Paper] Modeling of a bending supercoiled polymer (SCP) artificial muscle is accepted by IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. This work is also chosen for presentation at the 2020 IEEE InternationalConference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft)
02: [Paper] Vibration-based multi-axis force sensing: Design, characterization, and modeling is accepted by IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. This work is also chosen for presentation at the 2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
01: [Paper] TSA-BRAG: A twisted string actuator-powered biomimetic robotic assistive glove is accepted for presentation by the 2020 IEEE International Symposium on Medical Robotics (ISMR)
01: [Paper] Compliant and large-strain twisted string actuators using supercoiled polymers is accepted for presentation by the 2020 IEEE International Conference on SoftRobotics (RoboSoft)
01: [Paper] Helically Wrapped Supercoiled Polymer (HW-SCP) Artificial Muscles: Design, Characterization, and Modeling is accepted for presentation by the 2020 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
2019
12: [Paper] Experimental investigation of the lonely stroke behavior in supercoiled polymer artificial muscles is accepted by the SPIE ElectroactivePolymer Actuators and Devices(EAPAD) Conference
07: [Funding] Project "An Artificial Muscle-powered Versatile Robotic Grasper" is funded by Nevada NASASpace Grant Consortium. J. Zhang (PI), H. La (Co-PI). Total Award Amount:$49,000.
06: [Paper] The effects of nylon polymer threads on hysteresis behavior of supercoiled polymer (SCP) artificial muscles is accepted by the ASME Dynamic Systems and ControlConference (DSCC'19)
05: [Paper] Self-sensing for twisted string actuators using conductive supercoiled polymers is accepted by the ASME Conference on Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures and IntelligentSystems (SMASIS'19)
05: [Paper] Robotic artificial muscles: Current progress and future perspectives is published by IEEE Transactions on Robotics
03: Funding: Project "REUSite: Biomimetic and Soft Robotics(BioSoRo): from Biological Inspirations to Engineered Mechanisms" is funded by National Science Foundation. Y. Shen(Co-PI), J. Hoy (Co-PI), P. Menezes (SP),M. Aureli (SP), J. Zhang (SP), H. Xu (SP), D. Mathew (SP). Total Award Amount:$491,713.
03: Prof. Ankur Mehta from UCLA visited our group
2018
11: Prof. Santosh Devasia from the University of Washington visited our group, welcome!
08: Smart Robotics Lab at the University of Nevada, Reno is founded by Dr. Zhang.