Papers
30
Total Citations
1,024
H-Index
14
About
Andrew P. Sabelhaus is a robotics researcher whose work spans tensegrity robotics, soft robotics, and advanced actuation systems. He is perhaps best known for his foundational contributions to tensegrity robot design during his time at NASA Ames Research Center's Dynamic Tensegrity Robotics Lab, where he helped develop SUPERball — a spherical, untethered tensegrity robot designed for planetary exploration. His papers on SUPERball's design, control, and locomotion have collectively garnered over 400 citations, reflecting their significant influence on the field of compliant and modular robotic systems. Sabelhaus also advanced the design of flexible, tensegrity-based spines for quadruped robots through the ULTRA Spine project, exploring model-predictive control strategies for underactuated systems. More recently, his research has expanded into smart materials and soft robotics, including shape memory alloy actuators with embedded sensing for closed-loop control and groundbreaking work on liquid crystal elastomers integrated with soft thermoelectrics — a 2022 paper that has already accumulated over 150 citations. Across his career, Sabelhaus has consistently bridged simulation, hardware validation, and control theory, making him a versatile and impactful figure in next-generation robotic systems.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1
- 2System design and locomotion of SUPERball, an untethered tensegrity robot183 citations · 2015
- 3
- 4Design and evolution of a modular tensegrity robot platform83 citations · 2014
- 5Robust Control of a Multi-Axis Shape Memory Alloy-Driven Soft Manipulator44 citations · 2022
- 6SUPERball: Exploring Tensegrities for Planetary Probes42 citations · 2014
- 7Mechanism Design and Simulation of the ULTRA Spine: A Tensegrity Robot41 citations · 2015
- 8
- 9
- 10Model-Predictive Control of a flexible spine robot18 citations · 2017