Biography
Robert Baines is an Associate Professor in Engineering Science at the Oxford Robotics Institute and as a Tutorial Fellow at Somerville College. He leads the Protean Robotics Lab (PRL) with the goal of realizing robots that morph shape, adjust control policy, and adapt to a variety of locomanipulation tasks in challenging environments. The lab takes a full-stack approach to research, investigating the juncture of robot design, control, and material composition. In addition to pursuing fundamental scientific advances, the lab strives to create deployable robots for applications such as ecological monitoring, industrial inspection, maintenance, and space exploration.
Robert received his BS in Mechanical Engineering (2017) from Rice University. Subsequently, he received his MS (2019) and PhD (2023) in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science from Yale University, where he focused on fabricating shape-morphing material systems. He then moved to ETH Zurich as a postdoctoral fellow (2023-2026), investigating how the interplay of robot shape, sensing, and control facilitates dynamic skills such as climbing and traversing sparse terrain.
