Max Robotics — Global Service Robot Directory + US Certification

About

Robert MacCurdy is a pioneering roboticist and engineer whose work spans soft robotics, advanced manufacturing, evolutionary computation, and biomimetic design. Perhaps best known for his landmark 2018 study on acoustically controlled soft robotic fish—which has accumulated over 800 citations—MacCurdy demonstrated how bio-inspired underwater robots could enable close, non-invasive exploration of marine life, fundamentally reshaping how researchers envision human-ocean interaction. His equally influential 2016 work on "printable hydraulics" introduced a groundbreaking 3D co-printing method that simultaneously deposits solid and liquid materials to create pre-filled hydraulic channels, opening new frontiers in robot fabrication with over 200 citations. MacCurdy has also made significant contributions to auxetic materials science, showing how handedness in shearing auxetics can selectively produce rigid or compliant structures—work that has found broad applications across engineering disciplines. His explorations of evolutionary algorithms, captured in his "Unshackling Evolution" series, challenged long-standing complexity ceilings in computational morphology. More recently, he has advanced multi-material self-sensing soft actuators and recyclable robot fabrication, underscoring a commitment to sustainability and accessibility in robotics. With a body of work totaling well over 1,700 citations, MacCurdy continues to redefine what robots can be made of, how they are built, and where they can go.