Frontiers in Mechanism Design: AI-Designed Linkages, 4D-Printed Motion, and Deployable Grippers
Date and Time: January 8, 2026 10:00 – 11:30 (US Eastern Standard Time)
Short Description: Discover how researchers are redefining what machines can do. This webinar brings together three pioneering papers that push the limits of mechanism design: an AI-powered system that automatically generates high-order linkages for complex motion paths, a 4D-printed self-tying knot that encodes motion directly into material architecture, and new deployable polyhedral grippers engineered for gentle, noncontact capture in demanding environments. Whether you work in robotics, design automation, or advanced manufacturing, these talks reveal emerging technologies that will transform how we design and build adaptive, intelligent mechanical systems.
This JMD webinar will include five speakers.
AE talks: Yan Chen, Ketao Zhang
The panel discussion title: Open Source in the Age of AI: Accelerating the Research Cycle in Robotics and Mechanism Design
Speaker: Mitchell B. Fogelson, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Authors: Mitchell B. Fogelson, Conrad Tucker, Jonathan Cagan
GCP-HOLO: Generating High-Order Linkage Graphs for Path Synthesis
ASME. J. Mech. Des. MD-22-1425 https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4062147
Speakers: Yan Chen, Tianjin University and China; Ruijie Tang, Tsinghua University, China
Authors: Ruijie Tang, Qizhi Meng, Fugui Xie, Xin-Jun Liu, Jinsong Wang
Structural Designs of Novel Deployable Polyhedral Grippers for Noncontact Capturing Missions
ASME. J. Mech. Des: MD-23-1336 https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4063968
Speaker: Kai A. James
Authors: Anurag Bhattacharyya, Jinyoung Kim, Lee R. Alacoque, Kai A. James
Design Synthesis of a 4D-Printed Self-Tying Knot With Programmable Morphology
Mech. Des. June 2024, 146(6): 063303. doi: