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About

Levi Cai is a roboticist whose research spans autonomous construction, swarm robotics, and underwater exploration, pushing the boundaries of what robots can achieve in unstructured environments. His most influential work, “Toward site-specific and self-sufficient robotic fabrication on architectural scales” (251 citations), introduces a paradigm for on-site, autonomous construction that overcomes the limitations of traditional, labor-intensive building methods. Cai further developed this vision with the FIBERBOTS system, a swarm of robots that collaboratively fabricate fiber-based composite structures, demonstrating how decentralized teams can create complex, tubular architectures. In underwater robotics, Cai leads the CUREE project—a curious, autonomous robot designed for ecosystem exploration—which aims to capture the full complexity of coral reef interactions beyond static surveys. His work on multi-robot control of soft robotic fish and reinforcement learning for AUV navigation (e.g., “Learning to Swim”) addresses fundamental challenges in underwater vehicle coordination and adaptive control. With over 340 total citations, Cai’s contributions are shaping the future of robotic fabrication and environmental monitoring, earning him recognition as a pioneer in self-sufficient, site-specific robotic systems and autonomous underwater exploration.