Welcome to the homepage of the MERGe Lab, where we are working on making Materials Embody Robots, Geometrically. We are located at UT Austin’s Electrical and Computer Engineering department and led by Professor Lillian Chin. We merge ideas across disciplines and see what interesting robots emerge as a result.
We are broadly interested in the following research questions:
Design of novel actuators and sensors through geometry
Algorithmic frameworks to generate mechanisms for custom mechanical properties
Robot manipulation enhanced through accurate force and tactile sensing
Participatory design-based robot deployment in real-world communities
Jan. 2024 – Annan and Lilly’s paper “Embedded air channels transform soft lattices into sensorized grippers” has been accepted to ICRA 2024! See y’all in Yokohama!
Jan. 2024 – Valerie, Lilly, Jeana and Annan’s paper “Online Packing of Groceries Through Soft Fingers with Integrated Visual-Tactile Sensing” has been accepted to Robosoft 2024! See y’all in San Diego!