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Xiaonan (Sean) Huang

Xiaonan (Sean) Huang

Assistant Professor, Robotics

Email xiaonanh@umich.edu

Research Interests Design, control, and modeling of autonomous multi-terrain soft robots and tensegrity robots, integration of novel soft multifunctional materials into soft machines, and development of novel soft actuators, sensors, and wearable devices.

Related focus area Design & Soft Robotics

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Related news

Rendering of a soft microrobot with onboard depth camera, soft actuators, and anchor feet for climbing plant stems.

Soft microrobots to rescue plants from pests receive $1M award

February 25, 2026

Several renders of the SPARC robot as it travels precisely along paths on the ground, transitions to climbing walls, and travels along the wall with and without a payload.

Soft origami robot inch-worms up walls

September 24, 2025

A robot made of three tubes and cables connecting them tumbles across the floor in different arrangements in this composite image.

Unique robot shape adopts advanced actuators for better performance

August 13, 2025

Illustrated robots playing

Welcome new Robotics faculty

December 6, 2022

Honors and awards

2025
Best Poster Award in Multi-Stable and Origami-based Soft Robots — ICRA
2025
Best Student Paper — CSCWD
2022
Best Paper Award — IEEE Sensors Conference
2021
Best PhD Dissertation Award — Carnegie Mellon University
2019
Best Paper Award — 2nd international PhD Academic Forum on Intelligent Manufacturing (IPAFIM 2019)
2018
Best Student Poster — Materials Research Society Symposium on Materials for Energy Applications