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About

Weiqi Cheng is a rising star in the emerging field of soft robotics, with a research focus that bridges intelligent sensory systems, microfluidics, and bio-inspired actuation. Their work is pioneering the integration of soft sensing technologies—particularly liquid metal-based flexible strain sensors—with closed-loop feedback control, enabling robots that are not only safe and elastic but also truly intelligent. Cheng’s most-cited paper, “Intelligent sensory systems toward soft robotics” (2024, 18 citations), lays the groundwork for this vision. A major contribution is the development of a soft crawling caterpillar driven by electrohydrodynamic (EHD) pumps, a miniaturized approach that replaces bulky external actuators with an integrated, flexible pump system. This innovation, along with their work on microfluidic control systems and pumps, has already garnered significant attention, with three 2024 papers accumulating over 45 citations. By demonstrating a soft robot that can sense, actuate, and control its own movement, Cheng is helping to define the next generation of autonomous, adaptive soft machines—a critical step toward practical applications in medicine, exploration, and human-robot interaction.