Mark R. Claffee

Papers

Total Citations

601

H-Index

About

Mark R. Claffee is a leading roboticist whose work has fundamentally advanced the design of dexterous, practical robotic hands and autonomous manipulation systems. His most impactful contribution is the iRobot-Harvard-Yale (iHY) Hand, a compliant, underactuated hand that uses just five actuators to perform a wide range of grasping and in-hand repositioning tasks. This landmark design, detailed in his highly cited 2014 paper (597 citations), directly addressed the critical need for a durable, inexpensive, and moderately dexterous hand suitable for real-world applications, moving beyond fragile, costly research prototypes. Beyond grasping, Claffee has tackled the challenge of autonomous interaction with the built environment. His work on the Aladdin project demonstrated a semi-autonomous door-opening system for explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) robots, integrating a modular, compliant gripper with intelligent software to enable small UGVs to perform this complex task. Through his focus on robust, underactuated mechanisms and practical autonomy, Claffee has provided foundational hardware and systems that continue to enable more capable and resilient robots for both research and field deployment.