ABSTRACT:  Miniature soft robotics is a rapidly advancing field focused on small-scale machines built from flexible, compliant materials, enabling safer, more adaptable interaction with living systems and complex natural environments. In this seminar, I will present our recent progress in the design, fabrication, modeling, and control of millimeter- to centimeter-scale bio-inspired soft robots, drawing inspiration from versatile small-scale organisms such as larval fish, jellyfish, and inchworms. These advances unlock new locomotion strategies and functional capabilities in hard-to-reach settings where conventional robots or human access struggle to operate. I will conclude by highlighting biomedical and environmental applications of these soft machines, particularly in challenging scenarios where conventional approaches are limited.

BIOSKETCH: Dr. Tianlu Wang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM) since January 2024. Since January 2026, he has been a Cooperating Faculty member in the Department of Ocean and Resources Engineering at UHM and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at The Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu. He received his postdoctoral training at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Germany. Previously, he received his Doctor of Sciences degree in 2023 and Master of Sciences degree in Robotics, Systems and Control in 2018, both from ETH Zurich in Switzerland. His research interests cover small-scale soft actuation, perception, control, and developing small-scale soft systems for real-world environmental and medical applications. His works have been published in Nature, Nature Communications, Nature Reviews Bioengineering, Science Advances, Advanced Materials, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, and Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS) Conference. He is the recipient of the Best Paper Award at RSS 2019, the Young Researcher Award at the 11th European Solid Mechanics Conference in 2022, the Best Poster Award at the Gordon Research Conference on Robotics in 2022, and the Best Workshop Paper Award at RS