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About

Kirstin Petersen is a leading roboticist whose research spans two dynamic and interconnected fields: soft robotics and collective robotic construction. Her work on soft actuators and fluid-driven robotic systems has proven foundational to the discipline, with her 2016 and 2017 review papers accumulating nearly 2,300 citations combined — a testament to their role as essential references for researchers worldwide. Petersen's contributions illuminate how compliant, elastomer-based materials can be engineered for actuation, sensing, and human-robot interaction, including innovations such as inflated actuators with reversible stable deformations and inchworm-inspired untethered locomotion. Equally influential is her pioneering work in collective robotic construction. Her TERMES project, inspired by termite colonies, demonstrated that decentralized robot teams could autonomously build complex three-dimensional structures without centralized control — a breakthrough that earned nearly 600 citations for the landmark 2014 paper alone. This bio-inspired philosophy carries through her comprehensive 2019 review of collective construction, which has helped define the field's trajectory. More recently, Petersen has explored emergent behaviors in swarmalator systems, expanding the theoretical underpinnings of swarm robotics. Across these areas, her research bridges biological inspiration, materials science, and autonomous systems, making her a defining voice in next-generation robotics.