Karthik Urs

Papers

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About

Karthik Urs is a robotics researcher advancing the frontier of legged locomotion through innovative actuator design and biomechanically-inspired engineering. His work centers on developing high-performance, open-source actuation systems that bridge the gap between biological movement and robotic hardware. Urs’s most-cited paper, “Design and Characterization of 3D Printed, Open-Source Actuators for Legged Locomotion” (2022, 8 citations), explores how co-optimizing actuators with leg morphology—mirroring nature’s co-evolution of skeleton and muscle—can dramatically improve robot agility and efficiency. He further contributes to the field with “Alternative Metrics to Select Motors for Quasi-Direct Drive Actuators” (2022, 2 citations), where he challenges traditional motor selection methods for legged robots, exoskeletons, and prosthetics. By proposing new metrics beyond the conventional motor gap radius, Urs enables the design of low-inertia, high-torque actuators critical for dynamic, responsive movement. His commitment to open-source hardware and rigorous characterization makes his work a valuable resource for researchers and students alike, offering practical tools to build more capable, animal-like robots.