S. Sara Mahdavi

University of British Columbia, University of Tehran

Papers

Total Citations

102

H-Index

About

Dr. S. Sara Mahdavi is a pioneering roboticist whose research centers on the design, modeling, and control of nonholonomic mobile robots, with a particular emphasis on wheel-based climbing systems and medical robotics. Her most significant contribution is the development of the UT-PCR (University of Tehran Pole Climbing Robot), a novel nonholonomic wheel-based robot capable of ascending vertical structures—a challenging and underexplored class of locomotion. Her foundational work, including the highly cited 2010 paper “Wheel-Based Climbing Robot: Modeling and Control” (39 citations), established the kinematic and control frameworks for this complex system, where the relative positions of wheels change dynamically. She further advanced path planning for nonholonomic constraints in her 2006 and 2007 papers (13 and 20 citations, respectively), proposing basic movement primitives that simplified trajectory generation. Beyond climbing robots, Dr. Mahdavi contributed to medical robotics with her 2011 paper on a robotic system for intra-operative trans-rectal ultrasound and elastography during radical prostatectomy (30 citations), demonstrating the clinical translation of her expertise. With a publication record spanning over a decade, her work has garnered substantial attention, influencing both robotic locomotion theory and surgical assistance technologies.