Prakhar Kumar
Papers
8
Total Citations
86
H-Index
6
About
Prakhar Kumar is a robotics and electronics researcher whose work sits at the dynamic intersection of soft robotics, piezoelectric actuation, and power electronics. His research focuses primarily on designing, modeling, and controlling piezoelectric soft robots capable of locomotion in constrained and complex environments — a frontier with profound implications for medical devices, search-and-rescue, and micro-scale robotics. Kumar's most cited work (28 citations) demonstrates how coordinated activation of multiple piezoelectric actuators enables sophisticated inchworm-style crawling by intelligently tuning ground friction through robot shape — a significant conceptual advance over single-degree-of-freedom predecessors. His complementary model-based control framework (18 citations) addresses the persistent challenge of precise shape control in elastic, flexible systems, bringing real-time robustness to an inherently difficult problem. Beyond locomotion, Kumar has made notable contributions to the enabling hardware ecosystem: developing hybrid switched-capacitor power management architectures for the high-voltage demands of soft actuators, scalable simulation frameworks, and compact untethered wireless platforms like eViper. His earlier work on large-area tactile-sensing electronics further demonstrates breadth across flexible electronics. Collectively accumulating over 80 citations, Kumar's portfolio represents a cohesive vision for fully autonomous, miniaturized soft robotic systems.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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- 6eViper: A Scalable Platform for Untethered Modular Soft Robots6 citations · 2023
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