Max Robotics — Global Service Robot Directory + US Certification

About

Zewei Hou is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of robotics, materials science, and acoustics, whose work is redefining how we manipulate matter at multiple scales. His primary research areas include robotic swarm control, acoustic manipulation, and architected metamaterials. Hou’s most significant contributions center on the development of the "vibration tweezer," a novel platform that uses acoustic fields to achieve precise, reconfigurable control over both individual particles and entire swarms. His 2020 paper on robotic trajectories and morphology manipulation of single particles and granular materials (26 citations) and his work on reconfigurable particle swarm robotics (23 citations) demonstrate a groundbreaking approach to self-assembly, moving beyond soft robotics to enable the dynamic shaping of particle collectives. In a notable leap, Hou has also designed architected piezoelectric metamaterials with full nonzero piezoelectric coefficients (2023, 8 citations), overcoming fundamental symmetry limitations of natural crystals. His most recent work (2025) extends Chladni patterns into fluid environments for selective particle manipulation, opening new avenues for biomedical and robotic handling. With a growing citation impact and a portfolio that bridges fundamental physics and applied robotics, Hou is establishing himself as a leading innovator in programmable matter and swarm engineering.