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About

Yangyong Zhao is a rising innovator in the field of soft robotics and smart materials, with a focused expertise in developing advanced actuators and tactile sensing systems. His most impactful contribution to date is the creation of a soft electrochemical actuator utilizing a two-dimensional conductive metal–organic framework nanowire array, published in 2021. This work, which has garnered 114 citations, introduced a novel hydrothermal growth method that significantly improves actuation performance by leveraging the material’s intrinsically ordered porous architecture and efficient ion and electron transport pathways. Zhao has also advanced the field of human-machine interaction through the development of flexible tactile sensing arrays for hardness recognition (2023). His most recent work (2025) tackles a critical challenge in soft magnetic robotics—the contradiction between dexterity and structural rigidity—by designing stiffness-tunable magnetic actuators based on a shape memory polymer/NdFeB composite, enabling segmental controllable motion. Through these contributions, Zhao is driving the evolution of soft actuators and sensors toward greater functionality, precision, and real-world applicability in robotics and biomedical devices.