Adaptive Manipulation: Bridging Rigid and Soft Robotics in Underwater Environments

Prof. Eleni Kelasidi is a Full Professor in Field Robotics at NTNU and Head of the Field Robotics Lab. Her research focuses on autonomous and resilient robotic systems for complex and dynamic environments, with particular expertise in underwater robotics, autonomous navigation, manipulation, control, and robotic systems for inspection, maintenance, and aquaculture. Before joining NTNU as a professor, she was a Senior Research Scientist at SINTEF Ocean, where she led research on autonomous and robotic aquaculture systems.

Dr. Raphael Zufferey is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and leads the Aerial and Aquatic Robotics (AURA) Lab. His research focuses on autonomous and bio-inspired robotics, particularly hybrid robotic systems capable of operating across air and water. His work explores unconventional robot design, aerial-aquatic locomotion, autonomy, and robotic technologies for monitoring and understanding aquatic environments. Before joining MIT, he was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow at EPFL and received his PhD in Robotics and Aeronautics from Imperial College London.

Dr. Dana Yoerger is a Scientist Emeritus at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and a pioneer in marine robotics and deep-ocean exploration. His research has focused on autonomous and remotely operated underwater vehicles, navigation, localization, control, and robotic exploration of the seafloor and ocean midwater. He has played key roles in the development of landmark robotic systems including ABE, Sentry, Jason, Nereus, and Mesobot, and has participated in more than 90 oceanographic expeditions. He is an IEEE Fellow for his contributions to autonomous underwater vehicles for deep-ocean science and exploration.

Yosaku Maeda is a senior engineer at JAMSTEC’s Marine Robotics Technology Research Group, where he works on the development and field deployment of advanced marine robotic systems. His activities span autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), under-ice robotics, seafloor exploration platforms, autonomous navigation, mission control, and underwater communication. He has contributed to JAMSTEC’s development of ultra-deepwater AUV technologies, autonomous seabed data-retrieval systems, and robotic platforms for challenging deep-ocean environments.

Dr. Berk Calli is an Associate Professor of Robotics Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and leads the Manipulation and Environmental Robotics Lab (MER Lab). His research focuses on robotic manipulation in unstructured environments, combining vision, active perception, control, machine learning, and intelligent mechanical design to enable robust and dexterous manipulation. His work spans applications including recycling, assistive robotics, and within-hand manipulation. He is also a co-founder of the widely used Yale-CMU-Berkeley (YCB) Object and Model Set for benchmarking robotic manipulation systems.

Prof. Stephen Licht is a Professor of Ocean Engineering and Director of the Robotics Laboratory for Complex Underwater Environments (R-CUE) at the University of Rhode Island. His research focuses on marine robotics, biologically inspired propulsion, nonlinear control, underwater vehicles, and compliant underwater manipulation, with an emphasis on enabling robots to operate reliably in dynamic and unpredictable environments. He received his PhD from the MIT-WHOI Joint Program and previously worked on advanced robotic systems at iRobot and Vecna Robotics.

Dr. Richard Murray is Editor-in-Chief of Advanced Intelligent Systems at Wiley, a journal covering robotics, artificial intelligence, automation, and emerging intelligent technologies. He holds a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Galway and has a research background spanning physics, materials science, and nanoscience. Before moving into scientific publishing, he conducted postdoctoral research in Spain and was a Marie Curie Fellow in Berlin. He joined Wiley as an editor in 2017 and, after a period working in open-access publishing and project management, returned to Wiley in 2022.