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About

Merel van Diepen is a pioneering researcher in the field of soft robotics, with a primary focus on computational design synthesis and the co-design of morphology and actuation for locomotion. Her work addresses the fundamental challenge of designing soft robots—which are inherently compliant, highly flexible, and lack rigid joints—by developing innovative computational methods that streamline and automate the design process. Van Diepen’s major contributions include the creation of a spatial grammar method for the computational design synthesis of virtual soft locomotion robots, first introduced in her 2018 paper and significantly expanded in her highly cited 2019 work (28 citations). This approach enables the systematic generation and exploration of soft robot designs, reducing the lengthy trial-and-error iterations typical of hand-design. Her 2022 paper (12 citations) further advances the field by tackling the complex co-design problem of simultaneously optimizing a robot’s morphology and actuation patterns for efficient locomotion. Van Diepen’s work is instrumental in making soft robotics more accessible and practical, with potential applications in safe human-robot interaction and delicate object manipulation. Her research continues to shape the future of autonomous, compliant robotic systems.