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About

Shivam Chopra is a roboticist pushing the boundaries of locomotion and manipulation in complex, yielding environments—from sand and soil to soft terrains that challenge conventional robots. His research integrates soft robotics, bioinspired design, and granular mechanics to create machines that move, sense, and dig where rigid systems fail. Chopra’s most cited work introduces granular jamming feet that dynamically stiffen and soften, improving foot-ground interaction on deformable surfaces (39 citations). He also developed piezoelectric actuators with integrated on-board sensing for millimeter-scale robots, enabling precise micro-robotic motion (37 citations). His bioinspired approach extends to an untethered robot that swims and senses within granular media, mimicking sea turtles (24 citations), and a worm-inspired digging robot that uses anisotropic forces to burrow efficiently (20 citations). By combining soft, underactuated appendages with novel sensing and actuation strategies, Chopra is opening new frontiers for robots in agriculture, search-and-rescue, and planetary exploration. His work exemplifies how nature’s solutions can inspire robust, adaptive machines for the most challenging substrates.