Michael T. Tolley

17.5k total citations · 11 hit papers
104 papers, 13.8k citations indexed

About

Michael T. Tolley is a scholar working on Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Condensed Matter Physics. According to data from OpenAlex, Michael T. Tolley has authored 104 papers receiving a total of 13.8k indexed citations (citations by other indexed papers that have themselves been cited), including 84 papers in Biomedical Engineering, 57 papers in Mechanical Engineering and 29 papers in Condensed Matter Physics. Recurrent topics in Michael T. Tolley's work include Soft Robotics and Applications (61 papers), Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence (47 papers) and Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials (47 papers). Michael T. Tolley is often cited by papers focused on Soft Robotics and Applications (61 papers), Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence (47 papers) and Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials (47 papers). Michael T. Tolley collaborates with scholars based in United States, South Korea and Belgium. Michael T. Tolley's co-authors include Daniela Rus, Robert J. Wood, Bobak Mosadegh, Samuel M. Felton, George M. Whitesides, Benjamin Shih, Robert F. Shepherd, Çağdaş D. Önal, Erik D. Demaine and Saurabh Jadhav and has published in prestigious journals such as Nature, Science and Advanced Materials.

In The Last Decade

Michael T. Tolley

100 papers receiving 13.5k citations

Hit Papers

5 papers align trajectories

What are hit papers?

Hit papers significantly outperform the citation benchmark for their cohort. A paper qualifies if it has ≥500 total citations, achieves ≥1.5× the top-1% citation threshold for papers in the same subfield and year (this is the minimum needed to enter the top 1%, not the average within it), or reaches the top citation threshold in at least one of its specific research topics.

Design, fabrication and control of soft robots

2015 4.3k citations Daniela Rus, Michael T. Tolley Nature profile →
A Resilient, Untethered Soft Robot

2014 916 citations Michael T. Tolley et al. Soft Robotics profile →
A 3D-printed, functionally graded soft robot powered by combustion

2015 877 citations Michael T. Tolley et al. profile →
A method for building self-folding machines

2014 790 citations Michael T. Tolley, Daniela Rus et al. profile →
Soft Robotics: Review of Fluid‐Driven Intrinsically Soft Devices; Manufacturing, Sensing, Control, and Applications in Human‐Robot Interaction

2017 789 citations Michael T. Tolley et al. profile →
Electronic skins and machine learning for intelligent soft robots

2020 534 citations Benjamin Shih, Michael T. Tolley et al. profile →
Soft robot perception using embedded soft sensors and recurrent neural networks

2019 507 citations Benjamin Shih, Michael T. Tolley et al. profile →
Design, fabrication and control of origami robots

2018 471 citations Daniela Rus, Michael T. Tolley Nature Reviews Materials profile →
Electrically controlled liquid crystal elastomer–based soft tubular actuator with multimodal actuation

2019 450 citations Qiguang He, Adriane Fernandes Minori et al. profile →
Electronics-free pneumatic circuits for controlling soft-legged robots

2021 298 citations Dylan Drotman, Saurabh Jadhav et al. profile →
A Soft Robotic Gripper With Gecko-Inspired Adhesive

2018 294 citations Paul E. Glick, Donald Ruffatto et al. profile →

Peers

Countries citing papers authored by Michael T. Tolley

Since Specialization

Citations

This map shows the geographic impact of Michael T. Tolley's research. It shows the number of citations coming from papers published by authors working in each country. You can also color the map by specialization and compare the number of citations received by Michael T. Tolley with the expected number of citations based on a country's size and research output (numbers larger than one mean the country cites Michael T. Tolley more than expected).

Fields of papers citing papers by Michael T. Tolley

Since Specialization

Physical SciencesHealth SciencesLife SciencesSocial Sciences

This network shows the impact of papers produced by Michael T. Tolley. Nodes represent research fields, and links connect fields that are likely to share authors. Colored nodes show fields that tend to cite the papers produced by Michael T. Tolley. The network helps show where Michael T. Tolley may publish in the future.

Co-authorship network of co-authors of Michael T. Tolley

This figure shows the co-authorship network connecting the top 25 collaborators of Michael T. Tolley. A scholar is included among the top collaborators of Michael T. Tolley based on the total number of citations received by their joint publications. Widths of edges represent the number of papers authors have co-authored together. Node borders signify the number of papers an author published with Michael T. Tolley. Michael T. Tolley is excluded from the visualization to improve readability, since they are connected to all nodes in the network.

All Works

Sort: Min cites: Since: Top N: Style:

20 of 20 papers shown

#	Work	Indexed citations
1	Monolithic Desktop Digital Fabrication of Autonomous Walking Robots 2025 ·Advanced Intelligent Systems ·Yichen Zhai, Jiayao Yan, (unknown), (unknown), Rohini Gupta, Michael T. Tolley	4
2	InchIGRAB: An Inchworm-Inspired Guided Retraction and Bending Device for Vine Robots During Colonoscopy 2025 ·IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics ·(unknown), (unknown), (unknown), Michael T. Tolley, Tania K. Morimoto	4
3	Data-driven Model Reduction for Soft Robots via Lagrangian Operator Inference 2024 ·IFAC-PapersOnLine ·(unknown), (unknown), (unknown), Michael T. Tolley, Boris Krämer	0
4	Directionally Compliant Legs Enabling Crevasse Traversal in Small Ground‐Based Robots 2023 ·SHILAP Revista de lepidopterología ·(unknown), Michael T. Tolley, Nick Gravish	4
5	Controlling the motion of gas-lubricated adhesive disks using multiple vibration sources 2023 ·Frontiers in Robotics and AI ·(unknown), (unknown), Antonio L. Sánchez, Michael T. Tolley	1
6	Digital Programming of Liquid Crystal Elastomers to Achieve High-Fidelity Surface Morphing 2022 ·Applied Materials Today ·Yichen Zhai, Michael T. Tolley, Tse Nga Ng	8
7	Tuning the Morphology of Suction Discs to Enable Directional Adhesion for Locomotion in Wet Environments 2022 ·Soft Robotics ·(unknown), (unknown), Saurabh Jadhav, (unknown), Michael T. Tolley	8
8	Branching Vine Robots for Unmapped Environments 2022 ·Frontiers in Robotics and AI ·Paul E. Glick, (unknown), Dylan Drotman, Donald Ruffatto, Michael T. Tolley	7
9	Power Amplification for Jumping Soft Robots Actuated by Artificial Muscles 2022 ·Frontiers in Robotics and AI ·Adriane Fernandes Minori, Saurabh Jadhav, (unknown), (unknown), Michael T. Tolley	14
10	Parapodia inspired soft appendages enable robot propulsion in granular media 2021 ·Bulletin of the American Physical Society ·(unknown), Saurabh Jadhav, Michael T. Tolley, Nick Gravish	1
11	Variable Stiffness Devices Using Fiber Jamming for Application in Soft Robotics and Wearable Haptics 2021 ·Soft Robotics ·Saurabh Jadhav, (unknown), Benjamin Shih, Jürgen P. Schulze, Michael T. Tolley	83
12	Cephalopod-inspired robot capable of cyclic jet propulsion through shape change 2020 ·Bioinspiration & Biomimetics ·Caleb Christianson, (unknown), (unknown), (unknown), Qiang Zhu, Geno Pawlak, Michael T. Tolley	48
13	A low-power, jamming, magnetorheological valve using electropermanent magnets suitable for distributed control in soft robots 2020 ·Smart Materials and Structures ·(unknown), Paul E. Glick, Donald Ruffatto, Aaron Parness, Michael T. Tolley, Christine Hartzell	32
14	Reversible actuation for self-folding modular machines using liquid crystal elastomer 2020 ·Smart Materials and Structures ·Adriane Fernandes Minori, Qiguang He, Paul E. Glick, (unknown), (unknown), Shengqiang Cai, Michael T. Tolley	24
15	Reversible adhesion to rough surfaces both in and out of water, inspired by the clingfish suction disc 2019 ·Bioinspiration & Biomimetics ·(unknown), Saurabh Jadhav, Haocheng Quan, Dimitri D. Deheyn, Michael T. Tolley	92
16	Optimal control and design of an underactuated ball-pitching robotic arm using large-scale multidisciplinary optimization 2019 ·AIAA Aviation 2019 Forum ·Jiayao Yan, Ning Li, (unknown), Michael T. Tolley, John T. Hwang	2
17	Jellyfish-Inspired Soft Robot Driven by Fluid Electrode Dielectric Organic Robotic Actuators 2019 ·Frontiers in Robotics and AI ·Caleb Christianson, (unknown), Guorui Li, Saurabh Jadhav, (unknown), (unknown), Tiefeng Li, Michael T. Tolley	79
18	Design, fabrication and control of origami robots breakdown → 2018 ·Nature Reviews Materials ·Daniela Rus, Michael T. Tolley	471
19	Design, fabrication and control of soft robots breakdown → 2015 ·Nature ·Daniela Rus, Michael T. Tolley	4339
20	Soft Robotics as an Emerging Academic Field 2015 ·Soft Robotics ·Barry A. Trimmer, Bram Vanderborght, Yiğit Mengüç, Michael T. Tolley, Joshua Schultz	5

Rankless uses publication and citation data sourced from OpenAlex, an open and comprehensive bibliographic database. While OpenAlex provides broad and valuable coverage of the global research landscape, it—like all bibliographic datasets—has inherent limitations. These include incomplete records, variations in author disambiguation, differences in journal indexing, and delays in data updates. As a result, some metrics and network relationships displayed in Rankless may not fully capture the entirety of a scholar's output or impact.

Explore authors with similar magnitude of impact