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About

Xudong Liang is a leading researcher in the mechanics and design of soft robotics and active materials, with a particular focus on liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) and bioinspired locomotion. His most celebrated work, a 2019 paper on a light-powered untethered soft robot (236 citations), introduced a bioinspired design capable of crawling, squeezing, and jumping—significantly expanding the locomotion modalities of light-driven robots. Liang has made foundational contributions to the constitutive modeling of LCEs, including a thermal-mechanical-nematic order coupling model (2024), and has advanced the field of LCE composites for soft actuators (2023, 34 citations). His research on programmable LCE metamaterials with soft elasticity (2022) and high-force miniature robots using triple-magnet systems (MINRob, 2024, 11 citations) demonstrates a commitment to both theoretical rigor and practical application. Notably, his 2025 work on soft-body rolling motion in Drosophila larvae (9 citations) reveals that such motion does not rely on external torque, offering new insights into biological locomotion. With over 340 total citations, Liang’s work bridges materials science, mechanics, and robotics, inspiring new generations of soft, adaptive machines.