PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Digby Chappell

Digby Chappell is an engineering researcher whose work applies robotics and machine learning to prosthetic control and wearable rehabilitation technology. He earned an MEng in Engineering at Cambridge in 2019 and completed an Imperial PhD on user-centred prosthetic hand control in 2024. His 2023 work includes a force-feedback study of imitation learning and the Hydra Hand, a gripper for power and precision grasps. He coauthored a 2024 arXiv preprint on four modular, task-specific prosthetic devices and a 2025 Scientific Reports study of continuous prosthetic control with multimodal feedback. Before Oxford, he worked as a Harvard Bioengineering postdoctoral fellow on wearable rehabilitation after stroke; as of October 2026, he is an associate professor at Oxford and leads the HEAT Lab.

Timeline

  1. 2019

    A Cambridge MEng

    He earns an MEng in Engineering at Cambridge in 2019; his final-year project studies wearable muscle activity sensors under George Malliaras.

  2. 2023

    Force feedback for imitation learning

    In 2023, he coauthors “Immersive Demonstrations are the Key to Imitation Learning” with Kelin Li and Nicolas Rojas. The team tests a feedback glove and robot arm during pick-and-place demonstrations and finds that force feedback changes the forces and trajectories that agents learn to imitate.

  3. 2023

    The Hydra Hand

    With Fernando Bello, Petar Kormushev and Nicolas Rojas, he introduces the Hydra Hand in 2023, a four-fingered gripper that switches between compliant power and rigid precision grasps.

  4. 2024

    A PhD on prosthetic control

    Imperial awards his PhD in 2024 for a thesis on myoelectric prosthetic hand control. The thesis treats training, device design and control algorithms as connected parts of a human-in-the-loop system.

  5. 2024

    Task-specific prosthetic devices

    His 2024 arXiv preprint presents four open-source modular, non-humanoid prosthetic devices for distinct tasks. The authors report improved task performance, reduced compensatory movement and reduced task load compared with a humanoid prosthesis.

  6. 2025

    Continuous feedback for prosthetic hands

    Chappell coauthors a 2025 Scientific Reports study on combining multimodal feedback with continuous control in prosthetic hands.

  7. As of October 2026

    Associate professor at Oxford

    Before joining Oxford in 2026, he serves as a Bioengineering postdoctoral fellow at Harvard and works on wearable technology for rehabilitation after stroke. As of October 2026, he is Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Tutorial Fellow at St Anne’s College, and leads the HEAT Lab, whose goal is to create body-interfacing robots and technology that restore, improve and transform human abilities.

Career

  1. Since 2026University of OxfordAssociate Professor of Engineering Science
  2. Since 2026St Anne's College, University of OxfordTutorial Fellow
  3. 2024–2025Harvard UniversityBioengineering Postdoctoral Fellow

Education

  1. 2024Imperial College LondonPhD
  2. 2019University of CambridgeMEng in Engineering

From the biography.

Checked career sources: digbychappell.github.io, spiral.imperial.ac.uk, biodesign.seas.harvard.edu, eng.ox.ac.uk.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Digby Chappell yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Homepage - Digby Chappell digbychappell.github.io. Checked 27 October 2026.
  2. [2301.09157] Immersive Demonstrations are the Key to Imitation Learning arxiv.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  3. [2309.14266] The Hydra Hand: A Mode-Switching Underactuated Gripper with Precision and Power Grasping Modes arxiv.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  4. Improving myoelectric prosthetic hand control via a multifaceted, user-centred approach spiral.imperial.ac.uk. Checked 27 October 2026.
  5. [2409.15589] Beyond Humanoid Prosthetic Hands: Modular Terminal Devices That Improve User Performance arxiv.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  6. Profile page for Professor Digby Chappell, Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford eng.ox.ac.uk. Checked 27 October 2026.
  7. Digby Chappell biography ori.ox.ac.uk. Checked 27 October 2026.