Harvard University — Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering
Invented the Octobot — the first fully autonomous soft robot — and Harvard RoboBee micro aerial vehicle. World leader in soft robotics, exoskeletons, and bio-inspired design.
Notable achievements
OctoBot (first fully soft autonomous robot), RoboBee (insect-scale flyer), soft exosuit for stroke patients, SEAS microrobotics.
Notable work
Recent publications
All papers →Matched by this lab's specialties (keyword overlap + direct affiliation)
Impact of the pectoral fin geometry on the gliding performance of flying fish robot
Shihao Ran, Junhao Wang, Kexian Liu +7 more
Biomimetic Intelligence and Robotics · 2026
Structurally engineered ultrasoft PEDOT:PSS fiber microelectrodes with enhanced electrochemical performance for neural interfaces.
Won C, Cho YU, Kweon S +16 more
Science advances · 2026
Armadillo-inspired active morphing skeletons for soft machines.
Zhou J, Zhou W, Lee SJ +3 more
Science advances · 2026
Self-healing and sense-healing: metal-organic framework-filled polymers for robust and durable soft robotics.
Rajeev S, Amayeka SA, Panicker UG
Materials horizons · 2026
Natural-Inspired Ultra-Flexible Lithium-Ion Batteries With Fractal Fern Architecture for Extreme Bending and Long-Lived Stability.
Wang L, Geng S, Deng L +5 more
Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2026
ManiSoft: Towards Vision-Language Manipulation for Soft Continuum Robotics
Ziyu Wei, Luting Wang, Chen Gao +2 more
2026
Patents
Soft robotic actuators
Assignee: Harvard University
US20140109560A1 · US · Apr 24, 2014
Soft robotic actuators
Assignee: Harvard University
WO2012148472A2 · WO · Nov 1, 2012