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About

Ciera McFarland is a robotics researcher whose work bridges the gap between soft, growing robots and multi-legged locomotion, with a focus on search and rescue in disaster-stricken environments. Her most impactful contribution is a general locomotion control framework for multi-legged robots (28 citations), which addresses the challenge of designing and controlling serially connected robots with limbs to navigate confined spaces like rubble-filled disaster zones. McFarland has also pioneered the study of everting vine robots—soft, growing inflated beam robots—investigating their collapse under their own weight and demonstrating their potential for urban search and rescue through field insights (7 citations each). Her work on soft air pocket force sensors (4 citations) enables large-scale flexible robots to sense forces for navigation and manipulation, while her research on estimating infinite-dimensional continuum robot states from the tip (3 citations) tackles the complex problem of state estimation for feedback control. Additionally, she explored the role of robot explanations during emergency evacuations (14 citations), highlighting her commitment to human-robot interaction in high-stakes scenarios. McFarland’s contributions are shaping the future of resilient, adaptable robots for real-world disaster response.