About

Ronan Hinchet is pioneering the frontier of soft robotics and wearable haptics, with a focus on creating artificial muscles and intelligent garments that bridge the gap between rigid machines and biological systems. His most impactful work, the development of low-voltage electrohydraulic actuators (63 citations), introduces a new class of artificial muscles that enable untethered, compliant robots capable of navigating unpredictable environments with unprecedented energy efficiency. Hinchet’s contributions extend to computational design, where he has developed topology optimization methods for robotic skins (ToRoS) and active kinesthetic garments that deliver on-demand force feedback for virtual reality and motion assistance. His innovative integration of triboelectric sensors with high-voltage thin-film transistors created a bistable latching mechanism for dielectric elastomer actuators, a key step toward self-powered soft systems. More recently, his stretchable electrohydraulic muscles achieve full-range motion in antagonistic joints, mimicking biological muscle pairs for prosthetics and musculoskeletal robots. With the open-source ORCA robotic hand, Hinchet is democratizing dexterous manipulation research. His work, spanning from fundamental actuator physics to system-level design tools, is shaping a future where soft, adaptive robots and haptic garments seamlessly augment human capability.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

4
H-Index
7
Papers
93
Total Citations
13
Avg Citations/Paper
🏆 Most Cited Paper
Low-voltage electrohydraulic actuators for untethered robotics
63 citations · 2024
📈 Most Prolific Year: 2024 (2 Papers)
🤝 Key Collaborators: 26
🏛 Institutions: ETH Zurich, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, SoftBank Robotics (France), Robotics Research (United States)

Top Papers

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Key Collaborators

Contact & Links

Available for collaboration
Content generated · 12 days ago