In this prestigious lecture, Prof Jian Dai will introduce the theoretical development and the technological innovation in robotics, and present the reconfigurable mechanisms and robots that are entailed by kinematics. The intrinsic theory in the study of kinematics has laid a foundation for the development of reconfigurable mechanisms and various forms of robots, leading to 20 years of innovation in metamorphic mechanisms, reconfigurable robots and evolutionary robots.

Prof Dai will give a philosophical view over the entwinement between robotics and arts, and present decades of development in origami robots, arts robots, metamorphic robots, manufacturing robots, rehabilitation robots and reconfigurable robots. This entwinement is elevated by using mathematical tools, particularly the advanced kinematics with screw theory and its relations to Lie groups and Lie algebra through finite screws in the form of Lie groups. With the change of the order of a screw system, a reconfigurable mechanism, as the core of a robot, enables it to change its mobility and present its different topologies, adapting to changing requirements and operating environments for variable tasks.

Extensive applications of the reconfigurable mechanisms and robots will be demonstrated in respect of assembly, packaging, food industry, domestic robots, rescue robots, walking robots, origami robots, rehabilitation robots and medical robots, leading to robots of future in the decades ahead.

Professor Jian S. Dai, CEng, IEEE Fellow, ASME Fellow, RSA Fellow, IMechE Fellow, is Chair of Mechanisms and Robotics and a pioneer in reconfigurable mechanisms in robots, covering origami robots, rehabilitation robots, food-manufacturing robots and metamorphic robots. He established the field of reconfigurable mechanisms and the sub-field of metamorphic mechanisms in robotics, which bridges the gap between versatile but expensive robots, and efficient but non-flexible machines, and explored their applications to the domains of healthcare, home and manufacturing.

Professor Dai is the recipient of the 2020 ASME Machine Design Award, as the 58th recipient since 1958, and the recipient of the 2015 ASME Mechanisms and Robotics Award, as the 27th recipient since 1974. The citation of the 2020 ASME Machine Design Award is for his pioneering contributions in establishing the field of reconfigurable mechanisms and the subfield of metamorphic mechanisms; and for making a lasting impact through research, application, teaching and service.

Professor Dai received many other awards, including over ten personal awards, such as the 2010 Overall Supervisory Excellence Award by King’s College London, the 2012 ASME Outstanding Service Award and the 2012 Mechanisms Innovation Award, etc., five Best Journal Paper Awards, e.g. the 2018 Crossley Award, and seven Best Conference Paper Awards, e.g. the 2019 AT Yang Award in Theoretical Kinematics. Professor Dai was elevated by IEEE in 2017 to IEEE Fellow with the citation as ‘for contributions to reconfigurable and metamorphic mechanisms in robotics.

Professor Dai has published over 600 peer-reviewed papers, 8 authored books, 3 edited books, and 19 book chapters, with Google h-index of 55, and i10 index of 225, and citation number over 12000 including a book on “Geometrical Foundations and Screw Algebra in Mechanisms and Robotics”, a book on “Evolutionary Design of Parallel Mechanisms”, a book on “Analysis and Synthesis of Compliant Parallel Mechanisms—Screw Theory Approach”, a book on “Sliding-Rolling Contact and In-Hand Manipulation”. He serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Robotica, a Subject Editor of Mechanism and Machine Theory, an Associate Editor of ASME Transactions: Journal of Mechanical Design.

Professor Dai is the founder of the prestigious conference series IEEE International Conference on Reconfigurable Mechanisms and Robots (IEEE ReMAR) and a chair and an organizer of a series of prestigious international conferences, workshops and symposia with major scientific relevance (e.g., ASME M&R, IEEE ICRA).

Professor Dai has graduated over 35 PhD students who are now faculty members of world-leading universities (e.g., University College London, Queen Mary University London, Purdue University, Wollongong University, Curtin University, Tecnologico de Monterrey (ITESM)), and affiliated with prestigious cooperative companies (e.g., Cambridge Consultants, Goldman Sachs) and becoming successful entrepreneurs (e.g., Movendo Technology Srl., AiTreat Pte Ltd., Novus Altair Ltd., DH-Robotics Technology Co., Ltd., and Dr-SciTech Ltd.).