Gu-Yeon Wei
Papers
18
Total Citations
520
H-Index
11
About
Gu-Yeon Wei is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of power electronics, microrobotics, and autonomous systems, with a distinguished focus on enabling the next generation of insect-scale aerial vehicles. His most influential work centers on solving one of microrobotics' most formidable challenges: delivering efficient, lightweight power electronics to drive piezoelectric actuators in flapping-wing robotic insects, most notably Harvard's celebrated RoboBee project. His 2008 review of actuation and power electronics options (159 citations) established foundational principles for the field, while subsequent work on milligram-scale high-voltage circuits and ultralight power units demonstrated practical pathways toward autonomous hovering flight. Wei's contributions extend beyond hardware design — his fully integrated system-on-chip solutions in 40nm CMOS and multi-chip systems brought autonomous closed-loop control within the extreme weight and power budgets of bee-sized robots. More recently, his "Formula-1" roofline model introduced a sophisticated framework for cyber-physical co-design in autonomous aerial machines, reflecting his broader vision for intelligent robotic systems. Collectively accumulating over 470 citations, Wei's body of work has profoundly shaped how researchers approach the energetics, electronics, and computational architecture of miniaturized autonomous robots.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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- 2Milligram-scale high-voltage power electronics for piezoelectric microrobots79 citations · 2009
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- 9A multi-chip system optimized for insect-scale flapping-wing robots16 citations · 2015
- 10Design and analysis of an integrated driver for piezoelectric actuators13 citations · 2013