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About

Jacobo Cervera-Torralba is a rising leader in soft robotics, with a focus on bio-inspired design and medical applications. His research spans three key areas: vine robots for minimally invasive surgery, soft underwater swimmers, and data-driven modeling for soft systems. His most notable contribution is the development of **InchIGRAB**, an inchworm-inspired device that enables guided retraction and bending of vine robots during colonoscopy. This work addresses a critical challenge in soft surgical robotics—steering and retraction—and has already garnered 15 citations since its 2025 publication. In parallel, Cervera-Torralba has advanced underwater robotics through his work on a modular eel-inspired soft robot, fabricated using lost-core injection molding of fluidic elastomer actuators (14 citations, 2024). He has also explored kinematics and self-sensing in a multi-degree-of-freedom soft robotic fish, analyzing propulsion from anguilliform to thunniform modes. His contributions to modeling include Lagrangian operator inference for data-driven model reduction of soft robots. With a growing citation record and innovations that bridge fundamental design and practical deployment, Cervera-Torralba is shaping the future of soft robotics in both clinical and aquatic environments.