Harvard Researchers Develop Optimized Robotic Joints

New design approach could lead to better robotic grippers, assistive devices, and more graceful robots.

Feb. 3, 2026 at 1:31am

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Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have devised a new way to design knee-like joints in robots, called rolling contact joints, that could improve robotic capabilities. The new design approach optimizes the shape of each joint's components to match desired force or application, allowing robots to be more efficient and use smaller actuators.

Why it matters

This research could lead to advancements in robotic grippers, assistive devices like exoskeletons, and robots that move more naturally like animals. The ability to optimize human-like joints for different applications opens up new possibilities in task-specific robots, assistive robotics, and the study of animal biomechanics.

The details

The researchers developed a mathematical method to design noncircular and irregular joint shapes that can follow unusual paths, unlike traditional rolling contact joints built from circular surfaces. This allows them to optimize joints for specific tasks like walking, jumping, or grabbing. They built prototypes of a knee-like joint and a two-finger robotic gripper to demonstrate their new design approach.

  • The research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2026.

The players

Colter Decker

A Ph.D. student at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and first author of the study.

Robert J. Wood

The Harry Lewis and Marlyn McGrath Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard and senior author of the paper.

Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

The research institution where the study was conducted.

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What they’re saying

“Whenever you have some robot, and you have an idea of what it needs to do – maybe it's a walking robot – you can start to think about the best places to output force. For something that's walking, you might want more force near the end of the stride to push off with, for example. If we can embed those decisions into the mechanics of the robot itself, then we can create robots that are more efficient. They can use smaller actuators because the energy is targeted specifically where it needs to be.”

— Colter Decker, Ph.D. student (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

“We try to think about robot design as being closely coupled with task and control. We aim to offload as much motion control as possible to the mechanics and materials of the robot, so that the control system can focus on task-level goals. Colter's methods do exactly that, and in a very elegant way, both mathematically and mechanically.”

— Robert J. Wood, Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

What’s next

The researchers plan to continue exploring how their optimized rolling contact joint design can be applied to a variety of robotic applications, from task-specific robots to assistive devices and the study of animal biomechanics.

The takeaway

This research represents a significant advancement in robotic joint design, enabling robots to be more efficient, powerful, and graceful in their movements by optimizing the mechanical properties of the joints themselves. The potential applications span from improved robotic grippers and exoskeletons to a better understanding of natural animal locomotion.