Ashis G. Banerjee is an Associate Professor of Industrial & Systems Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Washington (UW). Prior to joining UW, he was a Research Scientist at GE Global Research and a Postdoctoral Associate at MIT. He obtained his Ph.D. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland (UMD), College Park, and B.Tech. in Manufacturing Science and Engineering from IIT Kharagpur. He has broad research interests that span autonomous vehicles, mobile robots, and AI-enabled decision-making. He has published more than sixty five peer-reviewed articles on these topics in several highly-regarded forums, such as Advanced Intelligent Systems, Communications Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Automation Science and Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Robotics, Robotics and Autonomous Systems, and Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing. He has received several honors including the 2019 Amazon Research Award, 2012 Most Cited Paper Award from the Computer-Aided Design journal, and 2009 Best Mechanical Engineering Dissertation Award at UMD. He is an elected Senior Member of the IEEE, and serves as a Senior Editor for the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. He is also an Associate Editor for the ASME Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics, Frontiers in Robotics and AI, and Journal of Micro-Bio Robotics.
Giovanni Berselli is Full Professor and Chair of Design Methods for Industrial Engineering at the University of Genova, and Affiliated Researcher with the Advanced Robotics Department at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT). Currently, Prof. Berselli is the Referent for the Industry 4.0 Curriculum for the National Doctorate in Robotics and Intelligent Machines and the Coordinator of the PhD Degree in Mechanical, Energy and Management Engineering at the University of Genova (whose numerical consistency has been doubled since his supervision). Prof. Berselli is a Senior Member of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and a Fellow of the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) as well as the Chair of ASME Italy Section. He is also the past Chair of the ASME Technical Committee on Modeling, Dynamics, and Control of Adaptive Systems. At present, he has held Excellence Fellowships at the Technical University of Munich (with affiliation at the German Aerospace Agency - DLR), and at the Institute for Anthropomatics and Robotics (IAR) of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. In the recent past, he has been a Visiting & Affiliated Scientist at Harvard University & Massachusetts General Hospital, at the German Aerospace Agency (DLR), at the University of Twente, at Monash University, Australia, and with the School of Advanced Studies of the University of Navarra, Spain.
Lionel Birglen received the B.Eng. degree in Mechatronics from Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts et Industries de Strasbourg, France, in 2000, and the Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Universite Laval. In 2005, he joined the Mechanical Engineering Department of Polytechnique Montreal, where he is a Full Professor since 2015. In 2013, he was a Visiting Associate Professor in the 3ME Department, TU Delft, The Netherlands and in 2018, a Visiting Full Professor at the Laboratoire d'Informatique, de Robotique et de Microelectronique de Montpellier, France. His research interests include the kinematic analysis and control of self-adaptive mechanisms, especially underactuated robotic hands. He is the author of more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, two books on underactuated grasping and mechatronics, and three patents. Dr. Birglen is currently the Treasurer of CCToMM, a Senior Member of IEEE, as well as a member of the ASME, ASTM, and CASI.
Philippe Cardou holds a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Université Laval and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from McGill University. He has been with the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Université Laval since 2007, where he serves as a professor and a member of the Robotics Laboratory. Dr. Cardou is also a member of the "Centre de recherche en Robotique, Vision et Intelligence Machine" (CeRVIM) and the FRQNT Strategic Network on Cyberphysical Systems and Embedded Machine Intelligence (REPARTI). P. Cardou has published numerous articles on the design of robotic manipulators and mechanisms in international scientific journals and collaborates regularly with robotics companies such as RBot9 and Robotiq. His research focuses on the design of mechanisms and robot architectures, kinematics and optimization. P. Cardou has a specific interest for cable-driven parallel robots, similar to the Skycam, as they allow for large workspaces at relatively low costs. He is also interested in robotic grasping, since this problem may be regarded as dual to the problem of suspending an object with cables.
Stéphane Caro works as Director of Research at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and in the Laboratory of Digital Sciences of Nantes (LS2N), UMR CNRS 6004, France. Dr. Caro received his Engineering and M.Sc. degrees in mechanical engineering from Ecole Centrale Nantes, Nantes, France, in 2001, and his Doctorate degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Nantes in 2004. He was a Post-doctoral Fellow in the Centre for Intelligent Machines, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada from 2005 to 2006. He was awarded the accreditation to supervise research (HDR) in 2014. Dr. Caro is the head of the “Robots and Machines for Manufacturing Society and Services” (RoMaS) Team at LS2N. He is also a part-time researcher at IRT Jules Verne, a mutualized industrial research institute. Moreover, he is a lecturer at Ecole Centrale de Nantes. He is a member of ASME and IEEE. He is one of the two recipients of the 2018 Reviewers of the Year for the ASME Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics. He is one of two recipients of the 2019 Crossley Award, Mechanism and Machine Theory. He is associate editor for the ASME Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics, the IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters and the International Journal of Robotics Research. He is member of both IFToMM of both ASME Mechanisms and Robotics Committee and IFToMM Technical Committee for Computational Kinematics.
Nilanjan Chakraborty joined the Mechanical Engineering Faculty at Stony Brook University in the Fall of 2014. His research interests are in robotics, artificial intelligence, dynamical systems, and applied optimization. He is interested in developing capabilities for robots that will allow them to work robustly and reliably with or without human teammates and enable long-term autonomy in robotic systems. He specializes in developing contact dynamics based algorithms for manipulation planning, robot motion planning, and distributed planning for multi-robot systems. He is a member of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and ACM. He has served as a reviewer for leading robotics journals and conferences and also served as an Associate Editor for IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. He was a recipient of the Best Paper Award (Computer Systems Technical Group) at the Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society in 2013 and the Best Student Paper Award at Robotics: Science and Systems Conference in 2007.
Professor Dai is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng). He is also IEEE Fellow, ASME Fellow, RSA Fellow, IMechE Fellow, is Chair Professor of Mechanisms and Robotics, and is the Editor-in-Chief of international journal Robotica (established in 1983) and Subject Editor of Mechanism and Machine Theory. Pioneering contributions in reconfigurable mechanisms and robots, in origami robots, in ankle rehabilitation robots and in metamorphic robots, he established and lead the field of reconfigurable mechanisms and the sub-field of metamorphic mechanisms in robotics, a concept that bridges the gap between versatile but expensive robots, and efficient but non-flexible machines, and their applications to health, home and manufacture.
Irene Fassi received a PhD degree in Industrial Technologies and an MSc degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Politecnico di Milano, in 2001 and 1997, respectively. Since 1998, she has been a full-time researcher with CNR-ITIA (now CNR-STIIMA), where she founded and leads the research group MEDIS. She is currently an adjunct professor in robotics, precision engineering, and advanced manufacturing systems at the University of Brescia and the Politecnico di Milano. She is a member of the executive board of SIRI (Italian Robotics and Automation Association), AITeM (Italian Association of Manufacturing Technologies), and the ASME/DED Technical Committee on Micro and Nano Manufacturing. She also serves as President-Elect for the International Institution for Micro Manufacturing.
Prof. Reza Fotouhi (PhD, P.Eng., FEC) is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada. His research interests include Robotics (dynamics & control), Structural Dynamics and Vibrations, Computational Mechanics, and Biomechanics. He has established and is director of Robotics Lab at the University of Saskatchewan. His research program is focused on robotics and control with particular emphasis on control of industrial manipulators and mobile robots. He is well known in robotics research communities in Canada, and USA. He is an associate editor for ASME Journal of Mechanism and Robotics, and an Associate Editor, International Journal of Robotics and Automation, ACTA press.
Dr. Dongming Gan is an Associate Professor in the School of Engineering Technology at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN. He has PhD degrees in Robotics and Mechanical Engineering from King’s College London and Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. His main research interests fall into the area of robotics, theoretical kinematics, mechanism and machine theory. He has published over 130 international journal and conference papers on those topics with six patents. Dongming is an Associate Editor of Mechanism and Machine Theory, ASME Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics, IMechE Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science, and Robotica (Cambridge Press), a Topic Editor of Mechanical Sciences. He is an AVP on the IEEE RAS CAB board, a committee member of the ASME DED Mechanism and Robotics Committee, and a member of ASME and IEEE. He is the recipient of the 2023 Freudenstein Young Investigator award (ASME) and several best conference paper awards. He has served on program committees and symposiums of several international conferences including IEEE ICRA 2021/2023, IROS 2019-2023, Cyber 2019, IEEE/ASME ReMAR 2012-2024, Parallel 2014/2020 and ASME IDETC 2012-2023. He was the general conference Chair of the ASME IDETC 47th MR 2023 conference in Boston and the 6th IEEE/IFToMM ReMAR 2024 in Chicago.
Guangbo Hao (Fellow of ASME) is a Professor with the School of Engineering and Architecture at University College Cork (UCC), Ireland. He earned his first PhD from Northeastern University, China, in 2008 and his second PhD from Heriot-Watt University, UK, in 2011. His research interests focus on design of compliant mechanisms and robotics and their innovative applications such as precision manufacturing, energy harvesting and medical devices. He is serving as the Editor-in-Chief of Mechanical Sciences and an Associate Editor of ASME Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics, of IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, and of Mechanism and Machine Theory. He has won many accolades including the 2017, 2018 and 2022 ASME Compliant Mechanisms Awards and the 2023 UCC President’s Awards for Excellence in Teaching. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers.
Jovana Jovanova is a associate professor at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands working on the design of large-scale adaptive (meta)structures, mechanisms and machines able to change their properties and/or functionality over time to improve performance, reliability, and efficiency. Adaptation in this context is the ability of structures, mechanisms or machines to recognize the changes occurring in their environment and adjust internally to respond in a desired way. Her research includes modelling and characterization of mechanically intelligent structures that utilize smart materials and/or large deformations for adaptation. Jovana is involved in TU Delft initiatives within the Robotics and the Bioengineering Institutes, as well as the Dutch Soft Robotics national initiative. She has been an active member of ASME SMASIS since 2016, serving in different elected roles. She has also supported the organization of the Compliant Mechanisms Symposium within ASME IDETC and RoboSoft Conference.
Dr. Joo H. Kim is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at New York University (NYU) and affiliated faculty of NYU’s Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) and NYU-KAIST Global Innovation and Research Institute. Dr. Kim directs the Applied Dynamics and Optimization Laboratory for the broad areas of dynamics, control, and optimization of mechanical systems. With applications in robotic and biomechanical systems and their intersections, such as wearable robots, his current research topics include the energetics of dynamic systems, legged balance and gait stability, and integration of dynamics/control with numerical optimization. He received a Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering in 2006, and M.S. degrees in mathematics, mechanical engineering, and biomedical engineering, all from the University of Iowa, and a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Korea University, Seoul, South Korea. Dr. Kim is a member (elected) of the ASME Mechanisms and Robotics Technical Committee and a Senior Member of IEEE. His current and past roles as an Associate Editor include the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, the ASME Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics, and the Conference Editorial Board of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society. Dr. Kim is the recipient of several awards and honors, including the 2007 Top Government Technology of the Year Award from the State of Iowa, the 2014 Advanced Modeling and Simulation Best Paper Award from the ASME Computers and Information in Engineering Division, the 2015 Freudenstein/General Motors Young Investigator Award from the ASME Design Engineering Division, and the 2020 Associate Editor Award from the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design.
József Kövecses received the M.S. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Miskolc, Miskolc, Hungary, in 1989 and the Ph.D. degree in applied mechanics from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary, in 1994.,He was at the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, for three years, as a Postdoctoral Fellow, after completing his Ph.D. From 1998 to 2000, he was with Acres International Ltd., Niagara Falls, Canada. From 2000 to 2001, he was with MD Robotics, Brampton, Canada, and then, he was a Research Scientist in dynamics with the Canadian Space Agency, St.-Hubert, Canada, until 2003. He is currently an Associate Professor of mechanical engineering with McGill University, Montréal, Canada, where he is also affiliated with the Centre for Intelligent Machines. He has published numerous papers in leading journals. His research interests include dynamics, control, robotics, and mechatronics. He has significant research and industrial experience in these fields.,Dr. Kövecses is a member of both IEEE and ASME.
Dr. Darwin Tat Ming LAU (M ASME, SM IEEE) is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). His research focuses on topics in robot manipulation, particularly related to kinematic and dynamic analysis, design, optimisation and control of novel mechanisms, and human-robot teleoperation, including cable-driven parallel robots and bio-inspired robots. In addition to fundamental research, Dr. LAU also has great interest in the application of novel mechanisms to impactful real-world applications, including building construction (such as robotic brick laying, facade cleaning, painting, foundation works and facade inspection), musculoskeletal robots and wearable assistive devices. Noticeable awards received by Dr. LAU include the 2014 University of Melbourne Chancellor’s Prize for Excellence in the Ph.D. Thesis, 2019 CUHK University Education Award (Early Career Faculty Member) and 2019 University Grants Council Teaching Award (Early Career Faculty Member), and 2022 Young Innovator Award at Hong Kong Construction Industry Council Construction Innovation Award.
Vincenzo Parenti-Castelli received his Laurea degree in Mechanical Engineering cum laude at the Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna in 1973. He served as Full Professor of Mechanics of Machines from 1989-2020 and is currently Professor Emeritus of Alma Mater Studiorum. He worked on gas journal bearings, machine design, gears, kinematic and dynamic analysis of open and closed kinematic chains, robot manipulators, medical devices, and biomechanics. He authored many scientific publications in international journals and conference proceedings. He supervised more than 150 Masters and more than 30 Ph.D. students. He delivered several invited talks and seminars at international research institutions and universities. He has 5 patents related to the theory of mechanisms, knee prosthesis design, and laparoscopic tools. He served as Associate Editors for a number of journals and as Editor in Chief of Meccanica. He is currently a member of the Honorary Board of Mechanism and Machine Theory. He received several awards including the IFToMM 2021 Service Award, and the ASME DED 2022 Mechanisms and Robotics Award.
Giulio Reina received the Laurea degree and the Research Doctorate degree from the Politecnico of Bari, Italy in 2000 and 2004 respectively, both in Mechanical Engineering. From 2002 to 2003, he was with the Mobile Robotics Laboratory, University of Michigan, as a Visiting Scholar. In 2007, he was awarded a Japanese Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellowship for a one-year research with the Space Robotics Laboratory, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan. In 2010, he was also selected to receive an Endeavour Research Fellowship with the Australian Centre for Field Robotics, The University of Sydney. Currently, he serves as a Full Professor at the Department of Mechanics, Mathematics and Management, Politecnico di Bari, Italy. His research interests include mobile robotics for agriculture and planetary exploration, vehicle dynamic modelling and estimation, and underactuated grasping systems.
Dr. Robson is a Professor and director of the Human-Interactive Robotics lab at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF). She obtained her Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Irvine (UCI). Prior to joining CSUF in 2012, she was an Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University (2009-2011). Dr. Robson’s research is in the broad areas of Computational Kinematics, Mechanism Design, Robotics and Biomechanics and explores the interplay between morphology the morphology of mechanisms and robots and their interaction with the environment. Dr. Robson is an elected general member of the International Federation for Promotion of Mechanisms and Machine Science (IFToMM) Computational Kinematics Technical Committee (TC) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Mechanisms and Robotics TC. She is the chair of the US Committee for Theory of Machines and Mechanisms (USCToMM), dedicated to organizing the bi-annual USCToMM technical conference.
Soh Gim Song is an Associate Professor in the Engineering Product Development Pillar at the Singapore University of Technology and Design. He received his MSc and Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine (UCI). He is the lead PI of the Robotics Innovation Laboratory and the director of the Articulated Systems and Biomechanics group. His research interests focus on agile robotics and autonomy, human-robot interaction, and wire arc additive manufacturing. He was an Associate Research Scientist at the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (2010-2011), a visiting Scholar in the Department of Mechanical Engineering of MIT (2011-2012), and the Honors and Awards Subcommittee Chair for the ASME Mechanism and Robotics Committee (2019-2022). Currently, he serves as an Associate Editor for the ASME Journal of Mechanism and Robotics, a Member of the IFToMM Technical Committee for Robotics and Mechatronics, and the Chairperson of the Singapore Committee for the Technologies of Machines and Mechanisms.
Dr. Hao Su, PhD, is an Associate Professor at North Carolina State University and University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. He was a Research Scientist at Philips Research North America, and then a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University. Dr. Su received NSF CAREER Award, Switzer Distinguished Fellow by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Toyota Mobility Challenge Discover Award, Best Medical Robotics Paper Award (Runner-up) in IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Best Student Paper Award, Dynamic Systems & Control Division, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and Philips Innovation Transfer Award. His work was published in IEEE Transactions on Robotics, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, Nature, Science Robotics, Nature Machine Intelligence, Science Advances, and Nature Communications. He serves as Technical Editor of IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, associate editor of IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine (RAM), IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (RAL), IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) and serves on the Editorial Advisory Board for the International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer-Assisted Surgery.
Vishesh Vikas is an Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering at University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa where he directs the Agile Robotics Lab (ARL) since 2016. He received his B.Tech from IIT Guwahati, and MS and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from University of Florida, Gainesville. His research interests include soft robotics, tensegrity mechanisms, bio-inspired robotics, sensor fusion, robot modeling and control, and dynamical systems. In the past, he has served as chair of Student Mechanisms Robotics and Design Competition (SMRDC) and co-organizer of the 'Soft and Continuum Mechanisms' symposium at the ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (IDETC). He has also been actively involved with workshop and outreach efforts with regard to Mechatronics and Robotics Education (MRE).
Chandrika Prakash Vyasarayani is currently working as a Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, and serves as an Associate Editor for the ASME Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics, Mathematical and Computer Modelling of Dynamical Systems, and Mechanics-Based Design of Structures and Machines (2019 - 2024).
Dr. James Yang is a full Professor and Director of Human-Centric Design Research Lab, Associate Chair for Graduate Affairs, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA. Dr. Yang is an SAE Fellow and ASME Fellow, IEEE Senior member, and Fulbright Scholar. He received his Ph.D. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Iowa in 2003. Dr. Yang was a faculty member at the Department of Automotive Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing from 1992 to 1998 and a Research Engineer at the Center for Computer Aided Design, the University of Iowa from 2003 to 2008. Dr. Yang is the recipient of various national and international awards including SAE Arch T. Colwell Merit Award, SAE Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award, Air Force Summer Faculty Fellowship and among others. Dr. Yang’s research has been funded by NSF, NIOSH, NPSF, NASA, DOE, US Natick Soldier Center, TACOM, USARIEM, DOD, DHA, USCARS (GM, Ford, and Chrysler), Caterpillar Inc., Honda R&D North Americas, and other private sectors. Dr. Yang’s research interests include digital human modeling, human digital twins, biomechanics, healthcare engineering, driver behavior modeling for autonomous vehicles.
Dr Chin-Hsing Kuo is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Mechanical, Materials, Mechatronic and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Wollongong, Australia. His research interest lies in the design of mechanical and robotic systems to leverage mechanical energy in smart ways. His research has been focused on developing new theories, methods, and techniques for mechanisms and robotics, such as static balancing and reconfigurable mechanisms. He was the Conference Chair of the 2021 ASME Mechanisms and Robotics Conference at IDETC/CIE. He is/was an Associate Editor of ASME JMR, Mechanism and Machine Theory, and IEEE R-AL. He is a Fellow of ASME.
Dr. Anurag Purwar's research interests are in bringing together rigid body kinematics and machine learning for design of mechanisms and robots. He has published107 peer-reviewed conference and journal papers and his research has been funded by National Science Foundation (NSF), NY-state SPIR, NY-state Center for Biotechnology, Sensor-CAT, SUNY Research Foundation, industry, Stony Brook University, and SUNY Office of Provost. He received A.T. Yang award for the best paper in Theoretical Kinematics at the 2017 ASME Mechanisms and Robotics Conference and the MSC Software Simulation awardfor the best paper at the 2009 ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences (IDETC) . He is the recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching by Stony Brook University and the winner of the 2018 FACT2 award for Excellence in Instruction given to one professor from the entire SUNY system. He received the 2021 Distinguished Teaching Award from the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) Mid-Atlantic Division.
My passion is in building robots and intelligent machines to help tasks in challenging environments. My research interest lies in modeling, sensing, control and design of robots. I have experiences in telemanipulation, kinematic modeling and calibration, force control, continuum robots, and robotic hand designs. The applications that I am mostly interested in include robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery, and remotely operated manipulation tasks.
Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics
To stay informed about upcoming special issues, new posts to JMR’s video channel, and other journal news please join our JMR community on the following sites:
