Neel Doshi

About

Neel Doshi is a pioneering roboticist whose work sits at the compelling intersection of microrobotics, locomotion, and autonomous systems. His research has focused primarily on insect-scale legged robots, micro-scale manipulation, and multi-modal locomotion — pushing the boundaries of what is physically possible at millimeter scales where conventional engineering intuitions break down. Doshi's most influential contributions center on expanding the locomotive capabilities of tiny robots. His work on electroadhesion-based climbing (237 citations) demonstrated that a 1.48-gram quadrupedal robot could navigate inverted and vertical surfaces, while a complementary study on capillary adhesion (48 citations) further diversified climbing strategies. His 2018 paper on autonomous insect-scale locomotion — the HAMR-F platform (187 citations) — showed that a 2.8-gram robot could achieve meaningful onboard power and control, a landmark step toward true microrobot independence. The milliDelta robot (180 citations) showcased his breadth, translating industrial delta-robot precision to the millimeter scale for microsurgical and micromanipulation applications. Doshi has also advanced contact-implicit trajectory optimization for legged systems and developed bio-inspired proprioceptive feedback controllers. With over 800 cumulative citations, his work represents a foundational body of research for anyone studying the future of miniaturized, capable, and autonomous robotic systems.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Inverted and vertical climbing of a quadrupedal microrobot using electroadhesion

   237 citations · 2018
2. 2
   Power and Control Autonomy for High-Speed Locomotion With an Insect-Scale Legged Robot

   187 citations · 2018
3. 3
   The milliDelta: A high-bandwidth, high-precision, millimeter-scale Delta robot

   180 citations · 2018
4. 4
   Controllable water surface to underwater transition through electrowetting in a hybrid terrestrial-aquatic microrobot

   156 citations · 2018
5. 5
   Self-assembly of a swarm of autonomous boats into floating structures

   56 citations · 2014
6. 6
   Contact-implicit trajectory optimization using variational integrators

   50 citations · 2019
7. 7
   Inverted and Inclined Climbing Using Capillary Adhesion in a Quadrupedal Insect-Scale Robot

   48 citations · 2020
8. 8
   Bio-inspired mechanisms for inclined locomotion in a legged insect-scale robot

   36 citations · 2014
9. 9
   Effective locomotion at multiple stride frequencies using proprioceptive feedback on a legged microrobot

   29 citations · 2019
10. 10
    Feedback control of a legged microrobot with on-board sensing

    26 citations · 2015

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links