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About

Rachel Hegeman is a pioneering roboticist whose work bridges surgical robotics, autonomous manipulation, and bio-inspired systems. Her research centers on developing continuum manipulators—flexible, snake-like robots—for minimally invasive medical procedures and autonomous aerial perching. Hegeman’s major contributions include creating vision-based, data-driven methods that enable robots to manipulate unknown, anisotropic deformable tissues without prior models, as demonstrated in her 2018 work (69 citations). She also led the development of a surgical robotic system for treating pelvic osteolysis, integrating FBG-equipped continuum manipulators to access confined spaces behind hip implants (64 citations), and later validated autonomous debridement of bone lesions in human cadavers (43 citations). Beyond medicine, she designed AGRASP, an autonomous perching system for multirotor drones that combines perception and biomimetic grasping (57 citations). Her work on the LLAMA quadruped robot further showcases her versatility in legged locomotion over complex terrain. With over 235 total citations across her top papers, Hegeman’s innovations are advancing autonomous robotics in surgery, exploration, and aerial manipulation, making her a rising leader in the field.