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About

Hyejong Kim is a pioneering researcher in soft robotics, with a focus on developing lightweight, flexible, and safe robotic systems for healthcare and precision manipulation. Her work centers on inflatable robotic arms and pneumatically driven soft actuators, addressing the fundamental challenge of controlling highly nonlinear, compliant structures. Kim’s major contributions include a novel visual feedback control method that significantly improves the position accuracy of inflatable robotic arms, achieving 26 citations for her 2015 paper, and a joystick-controlled inflatable arm designed for healthcare applications, cited 20 times. She also advanced soft robotic hands with a pneumatically driven flexible finger incorporating a polyurethane bend sensor for feedback control, and demonstrated precise in-hand motion control of objects using soft actuators combined with visual feedback. Her research bridges the gap between soft material compliance and precise motion control, enabling new applications in assistive robotics and delicate object manipulation. Kim’s work is notable for its practical integration of low-cost, plastic-based components—such as ABS joints and air bag actuators—with sophisticated sensing and control strategies, making soft robotics more accessible and functional for real-world tasks.