Max Robotics — Global Service Robot Directory + US Certification

About

Zhijian Hao is a pioneering robotics researcher whose work centers on micro-scale robotics, swarm intelligence, and advanced fabrication techniques. He is best known for his groundbreaking development of micro-bristle-bots — vibratory robots with 3D-printed legs fabricated using two-photon polymerization (TPP) lithography — a field he has helped define from the ground up. Hao's most influential contribution, "A 5 mg micro-bristle-bot fabricated by two-photon lithography" (2019, 50 citations), introduced the first demonstration of a micro-bristle-bot at this scale, opening new frontiers in miniaturized locomotion. His subsequent work explored directional control through actuation frequency, backward and forward motion dynamics, and magnetically actuated variants at the sub-millimeter scale, collectively garnering over 70 citations across these studies alone. Beyond locomotion, Hao has tackled the formidable challenge of engineering collective behavior in micro-robot swarms, designing local interaction rules to govern collision-induced aggregations. His research has even extended to space exploration concepts, proposing micro-swimmer swarms for sensing in extraterrestrial oceans. Most recently, his collaboration on energy-efficient edge accelerators integrating RRAM demonstrates his expanding vision — bridging micro-robotics with embedded intelligence for real-world autonomous surveillance applications.