Publications

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Journal articles

  • Z. Ren, S. Kim, X. Ji, W. Zhu, F. Niroui, J. Kong, and Y. Chen, “High Lift Micro-Aerial-Robot Powered by Low Voltage and Long Endurance Dielectric Elastomer Actuators,” Advanced Materials, p. 2106757, 2022. (Cover Article)

  • Y. Chen, C. Arase, Z. Ren, and P. Chirarattananon, “Design, Characterization, and Liftoff of an Insect-Scale Soft Robotic Dragonfly Powered by Dielectric Elastomer Actuators,” Micromachines, 13(7), 1136, 2022

  • X. Huang, Z.J. Patterson, A.P. Sabelhaus, W. Huang, K. Chin, Z. Ren, M.K. Jawed, and C. Majidi, “Design and Closed-Loop Motion Planning of an Untethered Swimming Soft Robot Using 2D Discrete Elastic Rods Simulations,” Advanced Intelligent Systems, 2200163.

  • Y. Chen, S. Xu, Z. Ren, P. Chirarattananon, “Collision resilient insect-scale soft-actuated aerial robots with high agility,” IEEE Transactions on Robotics, vol. 37, no. 5, pp. 1752–1764, 2021. (Best Paper)

  • Z. Ren, M. Zarepoor, X. Huang, A. P. Sabelhaus, C. Majidi, “Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) Actuator with Embedded Liquid Metal Curvature Sensor for Closed-Loop Control,” Frontiers in Robotics and AI, vol.8, pp. 9, 2021.

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Conference papers

  • X. Huang, W. Huang, Z. Patterson, Z. Ren, M. K. Jawed and C. Majidi, "Numerical Simulation of an Untethered Omni-Directional Star-Shaped Swimming Robot," in 2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), pp. 11884-11890. IEEE, 2021.

  • Z. Masoud, Z. Ren, and C. Majidi, "Fabrication and Testing of a Soft Shape Memory Alloy Actuator With an Integrated Liquid Metal Sensor," in Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures and Intelligent Systems, vol. 84027, p. V001T04A028. American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2020.

  • X. Huang, Z. Ren, and C. Majidi, "Soft thermal actuators with embedded liquid metal microdroplets for improved heat management," in 2020 3rd IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft), pp. 367-372. IEEE, 2020.

  • Z. Ren, H. Wang, and W. Chen, "Frog-inspired hind limb for jumping robots," in 2017 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO), pp. 605-610. IEEE, 2017.