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About

Weihua Cai is a leading researcher in flexible energy storage and bioinspired soft robotics, with a focus on high-voltage microsupercapacitors and low-voltage actuation systems. Their most cited work, "High-Voltage Flexible Microsupercapacitors Based on Laser-Induced Graphene" (2018, 101 citations), introduced the first planar in-series architecture for flexible microsupercapacitors using laser-induced graphene, enabling high-voltage operation critical for powering robots and dielectric elastomers. This breakthrough addresses a key challenge in wearable and autonomous systems. In parallel, Cai’s work on "PRE-curved PVDF/PI unimorph structures for biomimic soft crawling actuators" (2018, 18 citations) demonstrated a pre-curved piezoelectric unimorph that achieves large curvature changes at record-low driving voltages—the lowest reported for PVDF-based actuators. This innovation advances soft inchworm robots, offering energy-efficient, high-displacement motion. Together, these contributions bridge materials science and robotics, with Cai’s high-voltage microsupercapacitors and low-voltage actuators enabling compact, flexible devices for next-generation autonomous systems. Their research is widely recognized for pushing the boundaries of miniaturized energy and actuation technologies.