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About

Millicent Schlafly is a rising roboticist whose work bridges human-robot collaboration, soft robotics, and swarm control. Her research focuses on understanding and augmenting human motor capabilities through physical interaction, developing novel soft actuators for dynamic motion, and creating intuitive interfaces for multi-agent systems. Schlafly’s most cited paper, “Measuring Interaction Bandwidth During Physical Human-Robot Collaboration” (2022, 6 citations), introduces a framework to quantify how individuals generate motion in response to visual or haptic cues, a critical step for designing assistive robots that adapt to human performance limits. In “Force and Speed in a Soft Stewart Platform” (2025, 3 citations), she pioneers a 6-degree-of-freedom mechanism using Handed Shearing Auxetic actuators, achieving dynamic motions with fewer mechatronic components than rigid alternatives—a breakthrough for soft robotics. Her work on “Ergodic Specifications for Flexible Swarm Control” (2020, 2 citations) develops an end-to-end pipeline from tactile tablet commands to onboard robot control, enabling swarms to adapt persistently to user inputs and environmental changes. Schlafly also applies her expertise to rehabilitation, quantitatively assessing movement deficits in hemiparetic stroke patients (2025, 1 citation). With a growing citation footprint and innovative contributions across human-robot interaction, soft actuation, and swarm systems, Schlafly is shaping the future of adaptive, human-centered robotics.