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About

Negin Nikafrooz is a robotics researcher whose work focuses on creating dexterous, practical robotic hands and rehabilitation devices that bridge the gap between mechanical design and human-like functionality. Her primary research areas include cable-driven mechanisms, adaptive grasping, and medical robotics for rehabilitation. Her most impactful contribution is the development of a single-actuated, cable-driven, and self-contained robotic hand (2021, 24 citations), which cleverly simplifies the complex anatomy of the human hand into a practical design capable of adaptive grasps—a significant step toward affordable, functional prosthetics. Building on this, she introduced a slip detection and control strategy using PVDF sensors (2022), enabling safer and more reliable object manipulation. In the rehabilitation domain, she designed, modeled, and fabricated a 3-DOF wrist rehabilitation robot (2018, 9 citations) to aid recovery after stroke or injury. Nikafrooz’s work is notable for its emphasis on elegant, low-complexity solutions to traditionally high-dimensional problems, making her contributions valuable for both assistive robotics and clinical applications. Her research continues to push the boundaries of how robotic hands can mimic and assist human function.