01Above ground
Listen to the plant.
Soft robotic tools and optical phenotyping help us understand plant condition. We aim to inform more precise use of water and agricultural inputs, reducing waste at its source.
Explore our leaf-gripper researchMaterials. Machines. Living systems.
The Science of Living and Artificial Robots for Precision Agriculture
and Ocean Health
We connect materials science, sensing, and actuation to develop biohybrid and artificial robots. Our research aims to learn from soil, interact precisely with plants, and monitor the health of rivers and oceans.
From fundamental science
to the field and the sea.
to the field and the sea.
01 Precision agriculture 02 Living soil & sensing 03 Aquatic robotics 04 Manufacturing 05 Green energy
Our research vision
Sensing, acting,
and enduring.
We study how living and engineered systems sense, move, and exchange energy.
At Cornell’s Organic Robotics Lab, led by Rob Shepherd, we bring biology and materials science into robotics. Mycelium-based biohybrid robots provide a living interface, with the goal of learning about soil health. Soft robotic tools interact with plants, while aquatic machines open possibilities for observing rivers and oceans. Together, these efforts aim to guide precise agricultural inputs, reduce runoff, and understand waterway health.
Energy and manufacturing make these machines possible. Redox flow batteries integrate energy storage and actuation into soft bodies; wave-energy harvesters explore renewable power for marine systems. Our longer-term goal is enduring electric robots that make agricultural logistics and ocean-health monitoring more practical.
Volumetric additive manufacturing enables complex robotic structures and production on demand, with the potential to reduce overproduction and excess inventory. We translate discoveries through new ventures and the independent research programs of our alumni.
Five connected research directions
From soil to sea.
Sense living systems.
Build capable machines.
Extend their endurance.
0102
Living soil
Listen beneath the soil.
Soft robots can bring instruments below ground. Mycelium-based biohybrid robots offer a complementary living interface: our goal is to read fungal responses to soil conditions, learn about soil health, and inform agricultural decisions.
Explore our mycelium research
03Rivers to the sea
Learn from the water.
Soft aquatic robots and embodied energy offer a path toward sustained underwater surveying. Our vision is to monitor river and ocean health and connect those observations to decisions upstream.
Explore our aquatic robot researchResearch images: Savan DeSouza / Cornell University; provided / Cornell Chronicle. Soil illustration is a conceptual research direction.
Mycelium-based biohybrid robotics
A living interface
with the soil.
We are developing biohybrid robots that pair living fungal mycelium with engineered sensing and motion. Our goal is to use this interface in agriculture to learn about soil health and guide more precise use of agricultural inputs.
Our published robots use electrical signals from mycelia to control movement and respond to light. Building on that work, we aim to read soil chemistry through fungal responses—connecting conditions below ground to decisions above it.
Our agricultural goal
Soil conditions Fungal signals Agricultural insight
04 Volumetric additive manufacturing
Make what we need.
When we need it.
How we make a machine is part of its environmental story. Volumetric additive manufacturing forms three-dimensional structures with light, opening possibilities for complex geometries and integrated robotic components.
Producing parts on demand can reduce waste from overproduction and excess inventory. It also gives us a way to build the intricate soft machines needed to sense, move, and work in the world.
Less excess inventoryComplex machinesProduction on demand
Explore volumetric printing of soft robots 05 Green energy & embodied energy
Energy for robots
that endure.
Harvest energy from the environment. Store it in the machine. Our aim is to keep electric robots working longer, from agricultural logistics to sustained ocean-health monitoring.
Redox flow batteries
Energy that moves
with the robot.
Our robotic circulatory systems use liquid electrolytes to combine electrical energy storage with hydraulic force transmission and actuation. Integrating these functions throughout a soft body opens a path toward longer operation and more adaptable machines.
Building on our aquatic robots, we are working toward enduring electric platforms that could simplify agricultural logistics and make ocean monitoring more continuous.
Read the redox-flow robotics paperWave-energy harvesting · Device, 2026
Power from
the motion of the sea.
Our soft wave-energy harvester uses an origami-inspired elastomeric pump that stretches and compresses with passing waves. Pumped seawater drives a turbine to generate electricity, while the compliant design accommodates large motions.
Led by Ofek Peretz, this work was demonstrated in ocean tests and published in Device. It advances our longer-term vision of renewable power supporting persistent marine systems.
Read the wave-energy paperThe longer-term vision
Renewable energy + enduring electric robots smoother agricultural logistics and sustained ocean-health monitoring.
Illustrations show research concepts. Energy storage and wave harvesting are complementary research efforts; the combined field and ocean applications are future goals.
One connected research framework
Fundamental science.
Living and artificial robots.
Different machines.
Shared foundations.
01 The challenge
At the sourceAgricultural inputsUse resources precisely
Along the wayRunoff transportUnderstand what moves
DownstreamWaterway healthObserve ecosystem response
02 Robotic systems
Crop phenotyping
Soil sensing & biohybrids
Underwater surveying
03 Enabling science
Explore the technologies behind the systems.
Give soft machines a sense of their surroundings.
Optical and tactile sensors measure how soft materials deform and interact with their environment. They connect contact and motion to useful information for robotic systems.
Stretchable distributed fiber-optic sensorsConnect sensing to action: learn from plants, soil, and water to guide precision agriculture and ocean-health monitoring.
Selected work
Science behind the vision.
6 selected papers
01
Renewable energy & marine systems
02Modular, scalable, and resilient soft wave energy harvester
Peretz et al. · Device · 2026
Redox flow batteries & robotic endurance
03Electrolytic vascular systems for energy-dense robots
Aubin et al. · Nature · 2019
Plant sensing
04In situ foliar augmentation of multiple species for optical phenotyping and bioengineering using soft robotics
İlman et al. · Science Robotics · 2025
Aquatic systems & energy
05The multifunctional use of an aqueous battery for a high capacity jellyfish robot
Liu et al. · Science Advances · 2024
Advanced manufacturing
06Volumetric 3D Printing of Endoskeletal Soft Robots
Darkes-Burkey & Shepherd · Advanced Materials · 2024
Fungal sensing & biohybrid control
Sensorimotor control of robots mediated by electrophysiological measurements of fungal mycelia
Mishra et al. · Science Robotics · 2024
Research into practice
From inventions
to everyday impact.
Translation is part of our approach. Two companies co-founded by Rob Shepherd bring advances in soft sensing and volumetric manufacturing into practical use.
Optical sensing → Plant & human interactions
Organic Robotics
Corporation
First product: LLume
Organic Robotics Corporation is commercializing our sensing technology, with plant interactions as a focus. Its first product, LLume, applies this technology to biometric monitoring of humans—bringing soft sensing into practical use.
Explore Organic Robotics CorporationVolumetric printing → Production on demand
A new way to make
Volumetric additive manufacturing brings complex parts and integrated components closer to production on demand. MAV Unlimited is translating this approach into manufacturing technology, with the aim of reducing overproduction and excess inventory.
Explore MAV UnlimitedOur current group
The people
behind the work.
At Cornell’s Organic Robotics Lab, we connect materials, machines, and environmental systems through shared research.
Hayden Webb
Jeff Kagle
Chongchan Kim
Daniel Garcia
Douglas Palumbo
Batist Geldhof
Young Seong Kim
Youngjune Park
Terrence Pierce
Yuto Haba
Group meetings · Together in the lab
Ideas worth
gathering around.
Choose a date to see the presenter and presentation title. The schedule updates from our Google Sheet every five minutes while this page is open. Concept illustrations follow the title’s topic; untitled talks retain an imagined research sketch.
Group meeting ·
Yuto Haba
Wednesday, 9:00 a.m. · Upson Hall 531
Imagined research theme
Soft machines, smarter movement
An imagined soft robot that changes its shape and movement through coordinated fluidic actuation.
Group meeting ·
Terrence Pierce
Wednesday, 9:00 a.m. · Upson Hall 531
Imagined research theme
Living materials in motion
An imagined biohybrid machine that pairs living muscle-like materials with a soft robotic body.
Group meeting ·
Chongchan Kim
Wednesday, 9:00 a.m. · Upson Hall 531
Imagined research theme
A skin that can sense
An imagined tactile surface that turns contact, pressure, and deformation into useful signals.
Group meeting ·
Youngjune Park
Wednesday, 9:00 a.m. · Upson Hall 531
Imagined research theme
Energy that circulates
An imagined robot with a circulating energy system that combines storage, actuation, and motion.
Group meeting ·
Douglas Palumbo
Wednesday, 9:00 a.m. · Upson Hall 531
Imagined research theme
Complex machines, made with light
An imagined volumetric printing process that builds intricate structures for soft robotic systems.
Group meeting ·
Hayden Webb
Wednesday, 9:00 a.m. · Upson Hall 531
Imagined research theme
The plant–machine interface
An imagined gentle robotic gripper that measures leaf condition to inform more precise farming.
Group meeting ·
Young Seong Kim
Wednesday, 9:00 a.m. · Upson Hall 531
Imagined research theme
Materials that recover
An imagined optical sensing material that reconnects after damage and keeps tracking deformation.
Group meeting ·
Daniel Garcia
Wednesday, 9:00 a.m. · Upson Hall 531
Imagined research theme
Exploring beneath the surface
An imagined segmented robot that measures conditions around roots and beneath the soil.
Group meeting ·
Batist Geldhof
Wednesday, 9:00 a.m. · Upson Hall 531
Imagined research theme
Adaptive machines in water
An imagined flexible swimming robot with distributed sensors for observing aquatic environments.
Sep 30, 2026: IROS – NO meeting.
Saved schedule from September 19, 2026. Enable JavaScript for automatic updates.
Our alumni, their next chapters
A lab’s impact grows
through its people.
Former doctoral researchers and postdocs carry ideas into independent research and teaching—from soft sensing and renewable energy to medicine, manufacturing, and planetary exploration.
Meet the current group
Artificial muscles & soft robotics
Huichan Zhao
Tsinghua University
Artificial muscles, stretchable sensors, and soft machines that reach into confined environments.
Explore her research
Embodied energy & autonomy
Cameron Aubin
University of Michigan
Bioinspired robots, actuators, and autonomous materials that integrate novel energy systems into the machine.
Explore his research
Energy storage & multifunctional materials
James Pikul
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Electrochemical energy storage, energy conversion, and soft materials that expand what robots can do.
Explore his research
Soft robotics for medicine
Simon Dunham
Weill Cornell Medicine
Soft materials, flexible electronics, and patient-specific 3D printing for cardiac sensing and other biomedical tools.
Explore his research
Sustainable robotic materials
Hedan Bai
ETH Zurich
Robotic materials and sensing systems designed to resist damage, self-heal, and support recycling or reprocessing.
Explore her research
Soft devices & advanced manufacturing
T. J. Wallin
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Polymer chemistry, additive manufacturing, and soft wearable devices for human–computer interaction.
Explore his research
Biohybrid actuation & assistive technology
Ronald Heisser
Nanyang Technological University
Incoming assistant professorMaterials, design, and fabrication for bioinspired actuation, including muscle-powered systems and tactile interfaces.
Explore his publications
Planetary robotics & terrain interaction
Chris Skonieczny
Concordia University · Canada
Robotic mobility, excavation, and construction on planetary surfaces, with a focus on terrain and reduced gravity.
Explore his research
Energy harvesting & autonomous systems
Ofek Peretz
Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Joining October 2026Wave-energy harvesting, propulsion, and embodied energy for autonomous systems in water and underground.
Explore his wave-energy work
Stretchable sensing & adaptive robotics
Anastasia Koivikko
University of Turku · Finland
Soft robotics, stretchable electronics, and bioinspired structures for responsive grippers and industrial or biomedical tools.
Explore her research
Soft robotics & machine intelligence
Mehmet Mert İlman
Manisa Celal Bayar University
Soft robotic systems, machine intelligence, and simulation, including robotic tools for plant interactions.
Explore his research
Engineering education & design
Autumn Pratt
Northwest Nazarene University
Educating the next generation of engineers, with teaching that connects scientific investigation, design, and the foundations of science.
Explore her teachingLet’s connect the dots.
A shared future.
A collective effort.
Interested in soft robotics, precision agriculture, waterway health, green energy, or new ways to manufacture? Connect with the Organic Robotics Lab to explore research and translation.
Get in touch Meet our people