Prof Cecilia Laschi joins the ME department as a full professor.
She graduated in Computer Science at the University of Pisa in 1993 and received the Ph.D. in Robotics from the University of Genoa in 1998. In 2001-2002 she was JSPS visiting researcher at Waseda University in Tokyo.
She has been Full Professor of Biorobotics at the BioRobotics Institute of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, Italy, serving as the Institute Deputy Director.
Her research interests are in biorobotics and she is currently working in soft robotics, exploring the use of soft materials for building robots, a young research area that she pioneered and contributed to develop at international level. She has been working in humanoid robotics and neurorobotics, i.e. the use of robots for neuroscience research.
Modular Stiffness Design and Its Simplification on Cable-Driven Continuum Robot Control
Year of Publication:
Venue:
International Symposium of Robotics Research (ISRR)2026
2026
Publication Type:
Conference
Status:
Accepted
Authors:
Wenci Xin (SMART), Yimeng Sun (NUS), Zhihang Qin (NUS), Peiyi Wang (SMART), Daniela Rus (MIT), and Cecilia Laschi (NUS)
3-RRS and 3-RRUR parallel manipulators as spatial positioning manipulators
Year of Publication:
Venue:
Int. Symp. Robot. Res. (ISRR), 2026
2026
Publication Type:
Conference
Status:
Accepted
Authors:
Wu Yongxin (NUS), Luis Hernandez (SMART), Alok Prakash (SMART), Cecilia Laschi (NUS), Marcelo Ang (NUS), Fabio Duarte (MIT) and Daniela Rus (MIT)
Two-finger soft gripper with a scaled-pad contact interface for dual-mode grasping and surface cleaning
Year of Publication:
Venue:
IEEE/RSJ Int. Conf. Intell. Robots Syst. (IROS), Pittsburgh, PA, USA, 2026
2026
Publication Type:
Conference
Status:
Accepted
Authors:
Luis Hernandez (SMART), Zhi Cong Wong (SMART), Mong Juin Hwaye (NUS), Wu Yongxin (NUS), Do Van Minh (SMART), Alok Prakash (SMART), Cecilia Laschi (NUS), Marcelo Ang (NUS), Fabio Duarte (MIT) and Daniela Rus (MIT)
Shape Control of a Planar Hyper-Redundant Robot via Hybrid Kinematics-Informed and Learning-based Approach
Year of Publication:
Venue:
2026 The IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)
2026
Publication Type:
Conference
Status:
Accepted
Authors:
Yuli Song (NUS), Wenbo Li (NUS), Wenci Xin (NUS), Zhiqiang Tang (SEU), Daniela Rus (MIT), and Cecilia Laschi (NUS)
Unified Structural-Hydrodynamic Modeling of Underwater Underactuated Mechanisms and Soft Robots
Year of Publication:
Venue:
IROS 2026 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center
2026
Publication Type:
Conference
Status:
Accepted
Authors:
Chenrui Zhang (NUS), Yiyuan Zhang (NUS, SMART), Yunfei Ye (NUS), Junkai Chen (NUS), Haozhe Wang (SMART), Cecilia Laschi (NUS)
A compact foldable modular design with large deformation and force application
Year of Publication:
Venue:
IEEE RoboSoft 2026
2026
Publication Type:
Conference
Status:
Accepted
Authors:
Li Wenbo (NUS, SMART), Song Yuli (NUS, SMART), Wenci Xin (SMART), Cecilia Laschi (NUS, SMART)
Physical Human-Robot Interaction for Grasping in Augmented Reality via Rigid-Soft Robot Synergy
Year of Publication:
Venue:
9th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Soft Robotics
2026
Publication Type:
Conference
Status:
Accepted
Authors:
Huishi Huang (NUS, SMART), Jack Klusmann (TUM, SMART), Haozhe Wang (SMART), Shuchen Ji (NUS), Fengkang Ying (NUS, SMART), Yiyuan Zhang (NUS, SMART), John Nassour (TUM), Gordon Cheng (TUM), Daniela Rus (MIT), Jun Liu (A*STAR), Marcelo H Ang Jr (NUS), Cecilia Laschi (NUS)
Strain-based Shape and 3D Force Estimation for Rod-driven Continuum Robots with Stretch Sensors
Year of Publication:
Venue:
IEEE Transactions on Robotics
2026
Publication Type:
Journal
Status:
Accepted
Authors:
Peiyi Wang (SMART, NUS), Daniel Feliu-Talegon (TU Delft), Yuchen Sun (NUS), Zhexin Xie (SUSTech), Wenci Xin (SMART, NUS), Muhammad Sunny Nazeer (NUS), Cosimo Della Santina (TU Delft), Cecilia Laschi (NUS), Federico Renda (Khalifa University)
Adaptive and Multi-object Grasping via Deformable Origami Modules
Year of Publication:
Venue:
IEEE RoboSoft 2026
2026
Publication Type:
Conference
Status:
Accepted (Best Paper Finalists)
Authors:
Peiyi Wang (SMART), Paul A. M. Lefeuvre (NUS), Shangwei Zou (NUS, SMART), Zhenwei Ni (NUS), Daniela Rus (MIT), Cecilia Laschi (NUS)
Year of Publication:
Venue:
Science Advances
2026
Publication Type:
Journal
Status:
Published
Authors:
Zhiqiang Tang (SMART), Liying Tian (NTU), Wenci Xin (SMART), Qianqian Wang (Southeast University, China), Daniela Rus (MIT) & Cecilia Laschi (NUS)
Year of Publication:
Venue:
IROS 2025
2025
Publication Type:
Conference
Status:
Published
Authors:
Zhenwei Ni (NUS), Chang Xu (NUS), Zhihang Qin (NUS), Ceng Zhang (NUS), Zhiqiang Tang (SMART), Peiyi Wang (SMART), Cecilia Laschi (NUS)
Year of Publication:
Venue:
npj Robotics
2025
Publication Type:
Journal
Status:
Published
Authors:
Huishi Huang (co-first authors) (NUS), Haozhe Wang (co-first authors) (SMART), Chongyu Fang (NUS), Mingge Yan (NUS), Ruochen Xu (NUS), Yiyuan Zhang (NUS), Zhanchi Wang (USTC), Fenkang Ying (NUS), Jun Liu (A*STAR), Cecilia Laschi (NUS) & Marcelo Ang (NUS)