Adaptive Robotics Laboratory
We design and build novel, small, and adaptive robots that can reconfigure their shapes, structures, or functionalities to fulfill tasks in diverse environments
Our Research
To accomplish creating adaptive robots, we leverage mechanical and biological principles, novel materials, and dynamic control to guide our design. We are currently working in three main areas: soft robots, flying robots, and reconfigurable robots.
Opportunities forStudents
We are always looking for motivated graduate and undergraduate students to work on interesting projects related to soft robots, artificial muscles, dynamics systems, control systems, mechatronics, and mechanical design.
Industry Partnerships
We are open to collaborations with industry partners for advanced robotic system design and system integration. If you think our expertise may help your project, please contact us to discuss possible collaborations.
The Lab
Welcome to the Adaptive Robotics Laboratory at Colorado State University. The lab is founded and directed by Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Jianguo Zhao. It is located at the Powerhouse Energy Campus in Fort Collins, Colorado.
The lab explores the fundamental science and applications for adaptive robots – robots that can actively adapt to different environments and tasks through changing their shapes, sizes, motions, and functions. For fundamental science, we are interested in understanding how to create adaptive robots using physical intelligence by synergistically integrating reconfigurable mechanisms, variable stiffness materials, biologically inspired principles, and advanced control algorithms.
Real World Impact
Based on fundamental sciences, we are exploring applications in various fields such as robotics-inspired biology (how robots can help to unravel biological principles for locomotion), biomedical application (e.g., medical devices for assisting human hearts), and environmental monitoring (e.g., reconfigurable robots for pipeline inspections). Such robots will have many applications ranging from environmental monitoring to military surveillance.
