Numerical computation is indispensable in power system analysis, operation and planning. Examples such as load flow analysis, optimal power flow, unit commitment and generation expansion planning are routinely performed by utilities worldwide. Changes in climate, industrial demand and social landscape call for greater reliability, resilience and efficiency in power systems while minimizing environmental impact. New technologies such as renewables, power electronics and automation are integrated into power systems to cope with the

The development of efficient and scalable software systems is crucial for the growth of Industry 4.0 and its related applications, such as smart manufacturing and design technologies. In this talk, I will share our projects on developing such systems for automated robot operation, manipulation, and surveillance, with applications in diverse components of Industry 4.0.

Small-scale robots have great potential to revolutionize modern medicine by enabling non-invasive medical interventions at hard-to-reach and delicate body locations. However, these robots are inherently limited in actuation, computation, control, and power storage due to space restrictions arising from the miniaturization of conventional robotic components, such as actuators, processors, and sensors. Therefore, it is crucial to develop new original design and fabrication strategies different from those used to build traditional large-scale robots to advance small-scale robots and facilitate their translation from benchtops to bedsides.

Nature systems having a body with many degrees of freedom are often considered the ultimate model for machines. To confer the performance advantage of animal systems on robotic machines, we are conducting studies on a thoroughunderstanding of the biological systems at the biomechanical level and the developments of biomimetic intelligent machines and biologically inspired robots. Unfortunately, many of these robots are crucial for investigation but have yet to be widely applied to real applications. We, however, can use the insight from the study of biologically inspired robots to develop robotic machines for possible applications.
In this talk, I would like to introduce some of our studies on biologically inspired robots first and then provide some designs of environment-adaptive robots for real applications.

The past decades have witnessed spurred development of robots for various applications ranging from industry and service. Smart robots are demanding devices to realize automated manipulation of objects in multi-scale. Flexible robot manipulators based on compliant mechanisms provide precise and dexterous manipulation in macro/micro scales.

Legged robots have attracted considerable attention from both academia and industry in recent years, thanks to their superiorities of traversing complex terrains and accomplishing complex tasks as compared to traditional wheeled mobile robots. These advantages make them well suited for various applications such as industrial surveillance, search and rescue, last-mile delivery, among others.