Dr Dandan Zhang
ROBOTICS · AI · EDUCATION
IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON
Embodiment
How can materials and robot bodies create useful physical capabilities?
We design soft structures that sense contact and small magnetic systems that change shape and function. Six selected outcomes connect material design, fabrication and physical validation.
Research overview · All publications
01 / MATERIALS & TACTILE HARDWARE
i-Tac · Inverse design of tactile elastomers
Advanced Intelligent Systems · 2026 · Journal article
Outcome. Predicting printable mixtures for a chosen transparency and hardness links material specifications to fabrication. Tests across commercial and custom sensor designs show how tailored elastomers can reduce repeated trial-and-error development.
CrystalTac · A family of printed tactile sensors
Cyborg and Bionic Systems · 2025 · Journal article
Outcome. Rapid monolithic manufacturing brings different tactile sensing mechanisms into one design and fabrication workflow. The sensor family demonstrates flexible, task-specific structures with evaluated sensing performance and manufacturing costs.
MagicTac · Fine contact sensing through a 3D grid
ICRA · 2024 · Conference paper
Outcome. A multi-layer printed grid converts contact into trackable deformation. Experiments recover fine textures and dynamic contact information, while the fabrication process reduces assembly requirements.
02 / SOFT ACTUATION & RECONFIGURABLE ROBOTS
A compact hydraulic soft finger
ICAC · 2026 · Conference paper
Outcome. A miniature cyclic hydraulic loop drives a 3D-printed compliant finger. Simulation-guided design and vision feedback support repeatable bending; grasping tests demonstrate gentle handling of tofu and blueberries without visible damage.
Modular magnetic millirobots
ICRA · 2026 · Conference paper
Outcome. Programmable fields support closed-loop navigation, assembly and disassembly of magnetic modules. Chains reconfigure into grippers for cargo manipulation, with chain-to-gripper transformations succeeding in 90% of the reported trials.
Magni-DOME · Parallel microrobot fabrication
Artificial Life · 2026 · Journal article
Outcome. Photolithography and magnetic patterning produce hydrogel microrobots of different shapes and sizes in parallel. Fabrication and magnetic actuation share one setup, allowing selected designs to be characterised within the same production cycle.
Original research figures below: modular magnetic millirobots (Oyono, Lin and Zhang, 2026) and the i-Tac design-to-fabrication pipeline (Fan and Zhang, 2026).
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