Max Robotics — Global Service Robot Directory + US Certification

About

Yung Priscilla Lai is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of soft robotics, additive manufacturing, and biomedical engineering. Her work centers on developing magnetically actuated miniature robots and capsule systems for noninvasive medical interventions, particularly within the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Lai’s most impactful contribution is the design of a blindly controlled, magnetically actuated capsule for noninvasive sampling of the GI microbiome—a breakthrough that enables physical retrieval of microbial samples from all GI locations without tethering, addressing a critical gap in studying host-microbiome interactions (66 citations). She has also advanced the field of miniature soft robotics through multilayer 3D printing with programmable magnetization, allowing for fast, precise fabrication of robots that exhibit complex, induced shape transformations under external magnetic fields. Her 2023 paper on this topic has garnered 42 citations, with a follow-up in 2024 adding 13 more. Lai’s work is notable for its potential to revolutionize targeted drug delivery, diagnostics, and minimally invasive surgery, demonstrating how remote magnetic control can navigate robots through hard-to-access spaces in the human body.