We aim to further the scientific understanding of movement and manipulation in biological systems and to apply this knowledge towards new engineering paradigms in robot design, fabrication, and control. To accomplish this we work at the intersections of robotics, physics, and biology. Our current focus is on movement and manipulation in milli-scale robot and biological systems. We develop new fabrication techniques for construction of robots at millimeter scales. Experiments with agile and dexterous organisms can aid in developing intuition and understanding of effective movement strategies at small scales.
Our paper on tape-spring based manipulation has been published in Science Advances! This is a really exciting new research direction using highly deployable tape-springs for new and novel manipulation capabilities.
We are extremely excited to announce publication of our Nature paper in collaboration with the Sponberg lab at Georgia Tech. In this paper we combine evolutionary reconstruction, muscle physiology, nonlinear dynamics, and robots for science (robophysics!) to study how asynchronous insect muscle evolved. Congrats to Gravish lab alum and co-first author James Lynch as well as the rest of the authors. For more info you can read the paper here and checkout the UCSD news here.
Shivam’s robot work on subterranean burrowing robots (published here) has a great writeup in the UC San Diego Today. Making robots move through sand is HARD! Thankfully we have plenty of it here in San Diego :)
Graduate students: We encourage interested students to contact PI Gravish about potential opportunities.
Post-docs: We do not currently have any funded post-doctoral positions however students who are interested can contact PI Gravish to discuss co-applying for post-doctoral funding.
Undergrads: We are happy to have talented undergraduates work with graduate students on indendent research projects. Contact PI Gravish with an email to get more information.
Associate Professor, UC San Diego
Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Franklin Antonio Hall
Office: Room 3101
Labs: Room 3101
ngravish ATSIGN eng.ucsd.edu
