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About

Ryo Sakurai is a pioneering researcher in soft robotics, specializing in the development and control of powerful, compliant robotic systems driven by artificial muscles. His work centers on harnessing the complex, nonlinear dynamics of soft actuators—particularly McKibben-type pneumatic and hydraulic artificial muscles—for both actuation and computation. Sakurai’s major contributions include embedding bifurcations into pneumatic artificial muscles to exploit their rich dynamics as a computational resource, a concept central to physical reservoir computing. He has also advanced the field of power soft robotics, demonstrating a 7-degree-of-freedom, 1.5-meter-long robot driven by 29 hydraulic artificial muscles, validating its potential for complex collaborative tasks. His research on durable, electrically conductive pneumatic artificial muscles enables reliable physical reservoir computing, while his safety-enhanced control strategies address critical challenges in human-robot interaction. With over 80 citations across his most-cited works, Sakurai’s impact is evident in his innovative integration of soft actuation, sensing, and computation. His notable achievements include pioneering hydraulic artificial muscle systems for tough robots and developing novel sensing methods using deformation dynamics of polyurethane foam, marking him as a key figure in the next generation of adaptive, intelligent soft robotics.