• Please call me Matt (he/him)! I’m obsessed with tinkering and finding creative solutions to complex problems. I have a wide background of technical training/research (biochem/microfluidics/prototyping/soft sensor design/formulation chemistry/robotics) that allows for me to pull solutions to problems from otherwise unrelated fields.

  • Shape changing robots! Currently tackling this problem on two fronts, large inflatable exoskeletons for wheeled robots, and bio-inspired robotic collectives. Two very different projects with very different needs.

    The former is focusing on making a single, robust inflatable robot that can traverse varied terrain.

    Skills used: CAD, 3D printing, laser cutting, wireless electronics (RC/Bluetooth), controls, pneumatic actuation.

    The latter is a 25 unit collective based on the physics of biological patterning mechanisms (coming soon). From a practical standpoint, it is entirely different to make 25 of something rather than 1.

    Skills used: PCB fab, electronics, 3D printing, quality control, design for manufacture, passive mechanisms, C++, Python, MATLAB.

  • Patents

    -T. Susko, E. Hawkes, E. Sloan, M. Devlin. “Variable friction shoe” 2020 US Patent App US201962829254P

    -M. Devlin, C. Pang, A. Tembe. “Automated Imaging System for Evaluating the Curl of a Keratinous Substrate” 2019 US Patent 16/029,624

    -M. Devlin, I. Mathew, A. McVey, G. Whitfield. “Bioerodible Drug Delivery Implants” 2019 US Patent App 0008792 A1

    Journal papers

    -M. Devlin, S. Kim, O. Campàs, E. Hawkes. “Material-like robotic collectives with spatiotemporal control of strength and shape.” Science 387,880-885 (2025).

    -M. Fanton, H. V. Alizadeh, A. Domel, M. Devlin, M. Kurt, G. Mungal, D. Camarillo, E. Hawkes. “Variable Area, Constant Force Shock Absorption Motivated by Traumatic Brain Injury Prevention” Smart Materials and Structures. 2020

    Conference papers

    -M. Devlin, T. Liu, M. Zhu, N. Usevitch, N. Colonnese, A. Memar, “Soft, modular, shape-changing displays with hyperelastic bubble arrays” IROS. Detroit, MI 2023

    -A. Alvarez, M. Devlin* N. Naclerio, E. Hawkes, “Jumping on Air: Design and Modeling of Latch-mediated, Spring-actuated Air-jumpers” IROS. Kyoto, Japan 2022

    -M. Devlin, M. Dickens, C. Xiao, E. Hawkes, “SPHR: A Soft Pneumatic Hybrid Robot with extreme shape changing and lifting abilities” International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Prague, Czech Republic 2021

    D.S. Drew, M. Devlin, E. Hawkes, S. Follmer. “Acoustic Communication and Sensing for Inflatable Modular Soft Robots” International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Xi’an, China 2021

    -M. Devlin, B. Young, D. Haggerty, N. Naclerio, E. Hawkes. “An untethered soft cellular robot with variable volume, friction, and unit-to-unit cohesion” International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Las Vegas, NV, 2020

    -M. Devlin, R. Fragoza, H. Yu. “Exploration of Protein Capture Methods for Applications in Microfluidic Devices” NNIN REU Research Accomplishments. Ithaca, NY, 2015

    Presentations

    -M. Devlin, K. Park, C. Pang, H. Bui. “In-vitro Evaluation of Volumizing Mascara Deposited on Fake Eyelash” ACS Colloids and Surface Science Symposium. Atlanta, GA, 2019. Oral presentation

    -M. Devlin, B. Gizaw, A. Khaja, A. Mylarapu, C. Patonja, P. Pacheco, T. Sulchek. “Fc-Functionalized Beads in modulating the Complement-mediated Cytotoxicity of Escherichia coli” Annual Undergrad. Research Symposium. Atlanta, GA, 2015.

    -M. Devlin, B. Gizaw, A. Khaja, A. Mylarapu, C. Patonja, P. Pacheco, T. Sulchek. “Complement-mediated Cytotoxicity of Escherichia coli with Fc-Functionalized Beads” BMES Annual Meeting. San Antonio, TX, 2014.

Highlighted work

Material-like Robotic Collective

Rearranging units are the key to a collective that can solidify to support weight and then flow to take new forms.

This work represents the bulk of my Ph.D. thesis, and took years to accomplish. It holds more personal meaning for me than anything else I’ve ever created.

I think this interdisciplinary team with Dr. Otger Campàs, Dr. Sangwoo Kim, Dr. Elliot Hawkes, and myself is a real testament to looking to biology for solutions to robotic problems.

A single robot as a part of a 20 unit collective. It took so many years of iteration to get a robust enough unit to make so many of them.

I believe that if we ever want to have a Big Hero 6 or Terminator 2 style collective, it will not be enough to have smarter and smarter robots. These robots cannot talk to each other, and they just look for a single light signal. I can essentially control 20 robots at once with a single flashlight. Without having to control for robot-robot orientation and communication, it opens up so many possibilities to apply other control schemes or machine learning. Please reach out if you want to build one of these systems, or have a project like this that I could offer some insight into. We did the 100 iterations of robots so hopefully you don’t have to.

Skills used: 3D CAD, 3D Printing, PCB Design, Electrical Component Selection, MATLAB, C++, Python, Experimental Design, Test Development, Adobe Suite

Wearable haptic display for Meta Reality Labs

Research prototype I developed from scratch. A soft pneumatic backplane was stitched into a soft wristband with this blue inflatable haptic layer on top.

In four short months at Meta Reality Labs at the end of 2022, I was able to created a soft haptic display for novel user interaction. The hardest part of the project was creating a spherical silicone shell, so I created a series of molds and a fabrication process that I detail in our paper here. The nonlinear bubble size controller is also custom, and I programmed a pneumatic valve array using a MATLAB interface. I also created a series of demonstrations for a pilot assessment with a dozen users.

Fabrication process I created. Multi-layer silicone bonding was challenging, as was creating spherical silicone shells of a controlled thickness.

The work was published in the IROS 2023 conference in Detroit, MI. I took all of the pictures and made all of the graphics. My favorite demo was allowing for the user to mouse over a topological map, and the device would render the 3D shape of the map in real time (pictured).

Skills used: Silicone casting, mold design, 3D CAD, MATLAB, nonlinear control, material modeling, process development, UI/UX design.

Untethered multi-robots capable of lifting and locomotion

Pressure controls size, friction, and unit-to-unit connections

These balloon-based robots are actually able to lift the most weight of any multi-robot system. Each one can lift around 80lbs/36kg!! Multi-robot systems MUST have units with individual simplicity, otherwise the complexity will scale disastrously with the number of robots. These robots are able to control their size, friction, and unit-to-unit connection all with a single variable, pressure.

Internal electronics and a video explanation the robots working

This allowed for the robot to crawl along the ground, and also act as fully untethered volumetric actuators/lifters. If interested, details are in our paper here, or in my more general explanation of the concept here. This work also had a follow up of adding contact sensing described here.

Skills used: C++, 3D printing, MATLAB, 3D CAD, sewing, softgoods fabrication, pneumatic actuation, material modeling, electronic prototyping, radio communication, membrane characterization

Field-robot capable of obstacle navigation and lifting

Imagine a robot that could crawl under your couch and then lift it, and then crawl out from under it and go up some stairs! Shape-changing is a simple way to navigate obstacles of various sizes.

The secret is shear-only velcro. By modifying existing hook-and-loop adhesive, it is possible to make velcro that you can drive on without getting stuck. This way, the vehicle on the inside of the robot skin build it’s own ramp to get over anything, even vertical surfaces.

Skills used: MATLAB, C++, softgoods fabrication, radio communication, electronic prototyping, thermoforming, mathematical modeling