Khoi Dang Ly

I am an embedded and control system engineer with focus on robotics.

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Education

2017 - 2021

University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, USA

Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering (GPA 3.95)

Embedded Sensing and Control for High Speed Electro-hydraulic Soft Robots.
Soft robotics is a field of robotic system design characterized by materials and structures that exhibit large-scale deformation, high compliance, and rich multifunctionality. The incorporation of soft and deformable structures endows soft robotic systems with the compliance and resiliency that makes them well-adapted for unstructured and dynamic environments. While actuation mechanisms for soft robots vary widely, soft electrostatic transducers such as dielectric elastomer actuators and electro-hydraulic actuators have demonstrated promise due to their muscle-like performance. Despite significant leaps in design and modeling of electro-hydraulic actuators thus far, the applications based on these novel actuators are often limited to tethered systems that require bulky and high-cost external sensors and controllers. To address the mentioned shortcomings, this body of research has enabled embedded perception and intelligence to electromechanical systems driven by electro-hydraulic actuators, by (i) developing capacitive self-sensing and magnetic sensing techniques to estimate shape changes of electro-hydraulic actuators in real-time; (ii) designing, modeling, and implementing a controller for a mobile soft robot driven by electro-hydraulic actuators; and (iii) proposing a contact force estimator for the robot using an onboard inertial measurement unit and magnetic displacement sensors. This work represents a substantial step to bring soft robotics closer to practical, real-world applications.

2015 - 2017

Texas Tech University, Lubbock, USA

B.Sc. with highest honors in Mechanical Engineering (GPA 3.89)

Evaluation of 3D-printed soft fingertip grasping ability for variable fingertips' design parameters

Patent, Service, and Teaching

Patents

Tissue ablation for plant transformation. (Provisional Application No 63/709,087).
Capacitive Self-sensing for Electrostatic Transducers with High Voltage Isolation. (US Patent App. 17/928,453.).
Embedded Magnetic Sensing Method for Soft Actuators. (US Patent App. 17/746,427.).

Reviewer

Under review
Nature Communications
Advanced Materials
Soft Robotics
International Journal of Robotics Research (IJRR)
Robotics and Automation Letters (RA-L)
Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS)
IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)
IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft)

Teaching Assistant Experience

Fall 2018 - MCEN 4043 System Dynamics
Fall 2020 - MCEN 2063 Solid Mechanics

Research Mentoring

2023 - Grace Shirota (B.SC.) - Title: Laser ablation for tomato plant transformation.
2022 - Lizzette Corrales (B.SC.) - Title: Design and characterization of a small-scale wave tank.
2020 - Kyle Martinaitis (B.SC.) - Title: Characterization and Model Validation for the Electro-hydraulic Rolling Soft Robot.
2019 - Jatin Mayekar (M.S.) - Title: Design and Modeling of Electro-hydraulic Rolling Soft Robot.
2018 - Dade McMorris (B.SC.) - Title: Self-sensing of High Voltage Electrostatic Actuators .

Publications

2025

Under review

An untethered tactile display of evertive elastomeric actuators powered by explosions [PDF] [BIB]

Ronald H. Heisser*, Khoi D. Ly*, Ofek Peretz, Young S. Kim, Carlos A. Diaz-Ruiz, Rachel M. Miller, Cameron A. Aubin, Sadaf Sobhani, Nikolaos Bouklas, Robert F. Shepherd

2023

Nature Communications

A multifunctional soft robotic shape display with high-speed actuation, sensing, and control [PDF] [BIB]

Brian. K. Johnson, Mantas Naris, Vani Sundaram, Angie Volchko, Khoi Ly, Shane K. Mitchell, Eric Acome, Nicholas Kellaris, Christoph Keplinger, Nikolaus Correll, James S. Humbert, and Mark E. Rentschler

Advanced Engineering Materials

Mechanical Properties of Highly Deformable Elastomeric Gyroids for Multifunctional Capacitors [PDF] [BIB]

Emilie R Baker, Khoi Ly, Nikola Bosnjak, Maura R O’Neill, Rachel Miller, Sandra Li, Robert F Shepherd, Meredith N Silberstein

2022

IEEE Transaction on Robotics (IEEE TR-O)

Electro-Hydraulic Rolling Soft Wheel: Design, Hybrid Dynamic Modeling, and Model Predictive Control [PDF] [BIB]

Khoi Ly, Jatin Mayekar, Sarah A. Manzano, Christoph Keplinger, Mark Rentschler, Nikolaus Correll

IEEE Transaction on Robotics (IEEE TR-O)

Embedded Magnetic Sensing for Feedback Control of Soft HASEL Actuators [PDF] [BIB]

Vani Sundaram, Khoi Ly, Brian K. Johnson, Mantas Naris, Maxwell P. Anderson, J. Sean Humbert, Nikolaus Correll Mark Rentschler.

2021

International Symbosium of Experimental Robotics (ISER)

Malta, November 15

High-Bandwidth Nonlinear Control for Soft Actuators with Recursive Network Models [PDF] [BIB]

Sarah A. Manzano, Patricia Xu, Khoi Ly, Robert Shepherd, Nikolaus Correll

2020

Soft Robotics

Miniaturized circuitry for capacitive self-sensing and closed-loop control of soft electrostatic transducers [PDF] [BIB]

Khoi Ly, Nicholas Kellaris, Dade McMorris, Brian K Johnson, Eric Acome, Vani Sundaram, Mantas Naris, J Sean Humbert, Mark E Rentschler, Christoph Keplinger, Nikolaus Correll

IEEE Robotics and Automation Letter (RA-L)

Identification and control of a nonlinear soft actuator and sensor system [PDF] [BIB]

Brian K Johnson, Vani Sundaram, Mantas Naris, Eric Acome, Khoi Ly, Nikolaus Correll, Christoph Keplinger, James Sean Humbert, Mark E Rentschler

2019

Advanced Science

An Easy‐to‐Implement Toolkit to Create Versatile and High‐Performance HASEL Actuators for Untethered Soft Robots [PDF] [BIB]

Shane K Mitchell, Xingrui Wang, Eric Acome, Trent Martin, Khoi Ly, Nicholas Kellaris, Vidyacharan Gopaluni Venkata, Christoph Keplinger

2016

ASME - IDETC

Charlotte, NC, USA

Quantitative Motor Assessment, Detection, and Suppression of Parkinson’s Disease Hand Tremor: A Literature Review [PDF] [BIB]

Khoi Ly, Aimee Cloutier, James Yang

Skills and Technical Expertise

The below is my self-assessed level of confidence of my skills, i.e. a set of progress bars that have little meaning and are totally subjective.

Theoretical Knowledge:

Dynamics and Kinematics Modeling 90% Classical and State Space Modeling 85% System Identification 90% Model Predictive Control 90% Power Electronics 85% digital signal processing 85% Solid Mechanics 75%

Dynamics and Kinematics Modeling 90%

Classical and State Space Modeling 85%

System Identification 90%

Model Predictive Control 90%

Power Electronics 85%

digital signal processing 85%

Solid Mechanics 75%

Programming Languages:

C 85% C++ 75% Python 60% LATEX 50%

C 85%

C++ 75%

Python 60%

LATEX 50%

Software Proficiency:

SolidWork 90% Altium Designer 90% Matlab 90% Labview 55% Adobe Premiere Pro 70% Adobe Illustrator 75%

SolidWork 90%

Altium Designer 90%

Matlab 90%

Labview 55%

Adobe Premiere Pro 70%

Adobe Illustrator 75%

Hardware Proficiency:

PCB Design 85% 3D modeling and printing 90% Laser cutting 95% Lathing and Milling 75% Wet Lab Skills 60%

PCB Design 85%

3D modeling and printing 90%

Laser cutting 95%

Lathing and Milling 75%

Wet Lab Skills 60%

This CV has been auto-magically generated from the correspondent page on my personal website. For this reason, there may be some formatting problems here and there. Compilation Date: February 19, 2025