Stephen McKinley

About

Stephen McKinley is a leading roboticist whose work spans two transformative domains: universal robotic grasping and autonomous surgical robotics. His research addresses fundamental challenges in reliable manipulation—from e-commerce order fulfillment to robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery (RMIS). McKinley’s most influential contribution is his work on ambidextrous robot grasping policies (578 citations), which tackles the grand challenge of universal picking: enabling robots to reliably grasp diverse novel objects from cluttered heaps. In surgical robotics, he pioneered the Suture Needle Angular Positioner (SNAP) and a sequential convex optimization framework for automating multi-throw suturing (168 citations), demonstrating that complex surgical subtasks can be performed with superhuman precision. His innovations extend to autonomous tumor localization using Gaussian Process adaptive sampling (73 citations), cable-driven robot calibration for surgical debridement (77 citations), and low-cost haptic palpation probes for blood vessel detection (70 citations). Beyond the operating room, McKinley has applied his manipulation expertise to precision agriculture, developing co-robotic systems for automated drip irrigation tuning. His work on the Blue Gripper—a robust, force-controlled, low-cost robot hand—exemplifies his commitment to practical, deployable solutions that bridge the gap between cutting-edge research and real-world impact.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Learning ambidextrous robot grasping policies

   578 citations · 2019
2. 2
   Automating multi-throw multilateral surgical suturing with a mechanical needle guide and sequential convex optimization

   168 citations · 2016
3. 3
   Fast and Reliable Autonomous Surgical Debridement with Cable-Driven Robots Using a Two-Phase Calibration Procedure

   77 citations · 2018
4. 4
   Tumor localization using automated palpation with Gaussian Process Adaptive Sampling

   73 citations · 2016
5. 5
   A single-use haptic palpation probe for locating subcutaneous blood vessels in robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery

   70 citations · 2015
6. 6
   Design of parallel-jaw gripper tip surfaces for robust grasping

   50 citations · 2017
7. 7
   An interchangeable surgical instrument system with application to supervised automation of multilateral tumor resection

   36 citations · 2016
8. 8
   DATE: A handheld co-robotic device for automated tuning of emitters to enable precision irrigation

   18 citations · 2016
9. 9
   Robustly Adjusting Indoor Drip Irrigation Emitters with the Toyota HSR Robot

   14 citations · 2018
10. 10
    Blue Gripper: A Robust, Low-Cost, and Force-Controlled Robot Hand

    13 citations · 2019

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links