PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Robert Baines

Robert Baines is a robotics researcher who studies how machines can change shape and control to work across varied environments. He earned mechanical engineering degrees at Rice and Yale, studied context-sensitive sensing at EPFL, and researched shape-morphing robots at ETH Zurich. He coauthored research on an amphibious robot and a 2024 perspective on adaptive robotics; he received the Branco Weiss Fellowship in 2023, two robotics honors in 2025, and an ERC Starting Grant in 2026. Since September 2026, he is an associate professor at Oxford, where he leads the Protean Robotics Lab and works on shape-morphing robots and reinforcement learning for robot control.

Now at
Somerville College, University of Oxford

Timeline

  1. 2017

    Mechanical engineering at Rice

    He earns a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Rice University in 2017.

  2. 2019–2023

    Graduate degrees at Yale

    At Yale, he earns an MS in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science in 2019 and a PhD in 2023.

  3. 2021

    An EPFL robotics exchange

    During a 2021 exchange, he spends six months in EPFL's Reconfigurable Robotics Lab with Jamie Paik, studying multimodal deformation and temperature sensing for context-sensitive machines.

  4. 2022

    An amphibious morphing robot

    With Yale collaborators, he coauthors a 2022 Nature paper that introduces adaptive morphogenesis. Inspired by aquatic and terrestrial turtles, the robot changes limb shape and gait to move on land, in water, and between the two.

  5. 2023–2026

    A Branco Weiss Fellowship

    From 2023 to 2026, he works as a postdoctoral fellow in Mechanical and Process Engineering at ETH Zurich and holds a Branco Weiss Fellowship since 2023. His research explores shape-morphing quadrupeds for industrial tasks and the interplay of robot form, control, and environment.

  6. 2024

    Robots that evolve on demand

    In 2024, he coauthors a Nature Reviews Materials perspective on robots that change shape and control to adapt to their surroundings. He defines the article's scope and leads its writing.

  7. 2025

    Two robotics honors

    In 2025, he receives the RoboSoft Rising Star Award and becomes a Robotics: Science and Systems Pioneer. At RoboSoft, he gives a featured talk about adaptive shape-morphing quadrupeds for industrial task versatility.

  8. 2026

    An ERC Starting Grant

    He receives a 2026 ERC Starting Grant for TENSE, a project on tensegrity engineering for nonlinear shape-shifting and embodied locomanipulation. The grant supports an independent research group at Oxford.

  9. September 2026

    Associate Professor at Oxford

    In September 2026, he becomes an Associate Professor in Oxford's Department of Engineering Science and a Tutorial Fellow at Somerville College. He leads the Protean Robotics Lab, where research includes shape-morphing robots, reinforcement learning for robot control, and joint optimization of robot hardware and control policies.

Career

  1. Since 2026University of OxfordAssociate Professor
  2. Since 2026Somerville College, University of OxfordTutorial Fellow
  3. 2023–2026ETH ZurichPostdoctoral fellow
  4. 2021EPFL

Education

  1. 2023Yale UniversityPhD
  2. 2019Yale UniversityMS
  3. 2017Rice UniversityBS in Mechanical Engineering

From the biography.

Checked career sources: brancoweissfellowship.org, eng.ox.ac.uk, brancoweissfellowship.org, ox.ac.uk.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. Robert Baines eng.ox.ac.uk. Checked 27 October 2026.
  2. Robert Baines - NCCR Robotics nccr-robotics.ch. Checked 27 October 2026.
  3. Multi-environment robotic transitions through adaptive morphogenesis | Nature nature.com. Checked 27 October 2026.
  4. Congratulation Robert Baines – Robotic Systems Lab | ETH Zurich rsl.ethz.ch. Checked 27 October 2026.
  5. Robert Baines - The Branco Weiss Fellowship brancoweissfellowship.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  6. Robots that evolve on demand | Nature Reviews Materials nature.com. Checked 27 October 2026.
  7. Robert Baines gains recognition for his research in robotics - The Branco Weiss Fellowship brancoweissfellowship.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  8. Five Branco Weiss Fellows receive ERC Starting Grants - The Branco Weiss Fellowship brancoweissfellowship.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  9. Robert Baines appointed Associate Professor at the University of Oxford - The Branco Weiss Fellowship brancoweissfellowship.org. Checked 27 October 2026.