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About

Wenjuan Du is a robotics researcher whose work centers on the design, modeling, and control of tensegrity robots — a cutting-edge class of flexible mobile robots inspired by architectural tensegrity structures. Her research has made significant contributions to understanding how these mechanically elegant systems move, adapt, and navigate complex environments. Du's most influential work, "Force Analytic Method for Rolling Gaits of Tensegrity Robots" (2016, 35 citations), established a foundational finite-element method (FEM)-based framework for analyzing rolling locomotion, clarifying the critical relationship between actuator combinations and rolling directions. Building on this, her earlier dynamic simulation study (2014, 14 citations) helped validate the core mechanical advantages of tensegrity robots, including their impressive strength-to-mass ratio and shock resistance. Her subsequent research expanded these foundations into slope navigation using genetic algorithms (2020, 11 citations), path planning via A* algorithms (2018, 7 citations), and crawling motion control (2017, 6 citations), demonstrating a comprehensive and evolving research program. Collectively, Du's body of work — spanning mechanism design, dynamic modeling, motion control, and intelligent planning — has helped position tensegrity robots as a viable platform for adaptive, terrain-resilient locomotion, earning her recognition as a key contributor to this emerging field.