Ke Wu – Assistant Professor of Robotics

Hi! 👋 I am a Assistant Professor of Robotics (non-tenure-track) at MBZUAI. I received my Ph.D. in Robotics from INRIA (Lille, France) with the DEFROST team, supervised by Dr. Gang Zheng, where I worked on the theoretical foundations of bio-inspired, continuum, and soft robots. Prior to that. During my master’s research, I worked under the supervision of Dr. Donal Holland founder of the Soft Robotics Toolkit at Harvard focusing on pneumatic artificial muscles for rehabilitation.

My research centers on bio-inspired and soft robotic systems, which are inherently underactuated, highly redundant, and governed by complex, history-dependent multi-physics dynamics. Methodologically, I combine physics-based modeling with data-driven robot learning, with particular emphasis on:

• ⚙️ Lightweight physics-informed imitation learning
• 🤖 Reinforcement learning for soft/continuum systems
• 🌐 Real-time multi-physics simulation

My goal is to integrate artificial intelligence with the mechanical intelligence embodied in soft and continuum robots, enabling robust control, perception, and planning in uncertain and unstructured environments.

I develop soft robotic systems, physics-formed expert demonstrations, diffusion-based learning from demonstrations, and training-friendly multi-physics simulation frameworks that model continuum dynamics, frictional and magnetic fields, fluid–structure interactions, and actuator–robot coupling. Ultimately, my work aims to unify physics-based and data-driven approaches to advance robotic autonomy and enable transformative real-world applications.

I have published in leading robotics journals and conferences, including IEEE T-Mech, RA-L, SMC-S, Soft Robotics, JMR, RAS, MMT, IJMS, IROS, and RoboSoft. I also serve as an Associate Editor for soft robotics at ICRA 2025 and ICRA 2026.

🧪 Ke Wu’s Lab at MBZUAI

My group focuses on advancing bio-inspired robotics, soft–rigid hybrid systems, continuum robot intelligence, and physics-informed robot learning. We aim to unify mechanical intelligence with artificial intelligence to enable robust, adaptive robotic behavior in complex real-world environments.

I am fortunate to supervise an outstanding group of researchers at MBZUAI.
To date, I have supervised 17 researchers, including PhD students, Master’s students, and visiting researchers.

PhD Students:
Hang Yang, Zhenye Luo, Yangming Zhang

Master’s Students:
Ibrahim Alsarraj, Nakul Vijay Nibe, Ramy Kachwaa, Marwah Suhai, Merium Fazal Abbasi,
Kevin Henry, Salamah Almazrouei, Haobo Yang, Amal Saqib

Visiting Researchers:
Ashenafi Abrham Kassa, Fangju Yang, Qidi Sun, Tongshun Chen, Yuhao Wang

Our lab welcomes students who are excited about soft robotics, continuum mechanics, robot learning, and multi-physics simulation from fundamental theory to real-world experimental systems.

🔍 Opportunities

I am actively looking for highly motivated PhD students, Master’s students, and research interns.

If you are interested in working with me on soft robotics, continuum systems, physics-informed robot learning, or multi-physics simulation, please feel free to contact me at Ke.Wu@mbzuai.ac.ae.

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