D.R. Meldrum

Arizona State University, Stanford University, California Institute of Technology

Papers

Total Citations

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About

D.R. Meldrum’s research career spans two distinct and impactful domains: microfabrication and self-assembly, and advanced robotics control. In microfabrication, Meldrum’s most cited work (2007, 9 citations) pioneered the use of self-assembly to integrate large numbers of free-standing microcomponents onto unconventional substrates. This approach enabled the batch fabrication of components from different semiconductor materials—often incompatible in standard processes—and their seamless integration, offering a scalable path for heterogeneous microsystems. In robotics, Meldrum made foundational contributions to manipulator control, including an efficient order(n) recursive Jacobian inversion for n-link serial manipulators (1991, 4 citations), which streamlined task-space to joint-space transformations. Further work addressed control of manipulators with unactuated joints (1993, 3 citations) and direct model reference adaptive control for flexible robotic arms (1985, 2 citations), targeting precise control for space applications like satellite servicing. Though citation counts are modest, Meldrum’s work demonstrates early, creative thinking at the intersection of microassembly and robotics—laying groundwork for later advances in both fields.