Melanie Landesberg

Papers

Total Citations

H-Index

About

Melanie Landesberg is pioneering the intersection of soft robotics and embodied computation, fundamentally rethinking how robots can think, adapt, and survive. Her primary research areas include stretchable electronics, soft robot autonomy, and radical morphological adaptation. In her landmark 2024 paper, "Stretchable Arduinos embedded in soft robots" (66 citations), Landesberg introduced a paradigm-shifting approach to embedding decision-making capacity directly into deformable robot bodies, solving the critical challenge of integrating rigid computing with soft, stretchable platforms. This work has become a cornerstone reference for researchers seeking to give soft robots genuine onboard intelligence without compromising their flexibility. Landesberg’s equally provocative 2023 work, "Subtract to Adapt: Autotomic Robots" (2 citations), explores a radical new form of adaptation: survival through deliberate self-amputation. By demonstrating that robots can strategically shed body parts to escape entrapment or reconfigure their morphology, she challenges the conventional view that removal is always injury. This concept of “autotomy” opens entirely new avenues for resilient robot design in hazardous environments. Through these contributions, Landesberg is reshaping how we think about robot bodies—not as fixed vessels for computation, but as dynamic, self-editing systems capable of both stretching their minds and shedding their limbs.