Papers
11
Total Citations
527
H-Index
6
About
Mark Plecnik is a robotics researcher and mechanical engineer whose work centers on dynamic legged locomotion, mechanism design, and kinematic synthesis. He is best known for his foundational contributions to the development of Salto, a groundbreaking jumping monopod robot that demonstrated how series-elastic power modulation — combining compliant actuation with variable mechanical advantage — could enable robots to rival the agility of specialized jumping animals. His landmark 2016 paper, "Robotic Vertical Jumping Agility via Series-Elastic Power Modulation," has amassed over 367 citations and fundamentally advanced the field's understanding of how biological jumping strategies can be translated into robotic systems. Plecnik's broader research portfolio spans gripper design for dynamic climbing robots, ribbon-folding automation, cable-driven parallel robot kinematics, and novel large-scale root-finding methods for encoding design requirements as solvable polynomial systems rather than relying on stochastic optimization. His 2020 work on designing dynamic machines through numerical continuation reflects a distinctive mathematical rigor applied to mechanism synthesis. Across his career, Plecnik has consistently pushed the boundary between theoretical kinematics and high-performance physical robots, making him a notable voice in both computational mechanism design and agile robotics.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
- 1Robotic vertical jumping agility via series-elastic power modulation367 citations · 2016
- 2
- 3A power modulating leg mechanism for monopedal hopping35 citations · 2016
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- 6Designing Dynamic Machines With Large-Scale Root Finding10 citations · 2020
- 7Robotic folding of 2D and 3D structures from a ribbon6 citations · 2016
- 8Designing Rotary Linkages for Polar Motions4 citations · 2021
- 9Adjustable Power Modulation For A Leg Mechanism Suitable For Running3 citations · 2019
- 10