Girish Krishnan

Associate Professor

(217) 300-4927

gkrishna@illinois.edu

314 Transportation Building

For More Information

Monolithic Systems Lab

Education

Bachelors of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, R. V. College of Engineering, Bangalore, India, June 2004
Masters of Science (Engineering), Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, December 2006
Doctor of Philosophy, Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States of America, April 2011

Other Professional Activities

Associate Editor, IEEE Robotics and Automations Letter, 2020- present
Associate Editor, ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, 2021-present

Professional Highlights

2016 Engineering Council Award for Excellence in Advising.
List of Teachers ranked Excellent by their students in Fall 2015
NSF CAREER Award 2015
Freudenstein Young Investigator award from ASME in 2017

Resident Instruction

SE 598 Introduction to Soft Robotics, Fall '17, Fall '19
GE/SE 411 Introduction to Reliability Engineering, Fall '14, Spring '16, '17, '19, '21
GE/SE 310 General Engineering Design/ Design of Structures and Mechanisms, Spring '14, '15, Fall '18, Fall '20, Fall '21
GE/SE 598 Compliant Mechanism Design, Fall '13, '15, Spring 18, Spring 24
GE/SE 100 Introduction of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering, Fall '15, '16, '17, '18, '19, '20, '21

Design Teams

Advised a senior design project team, Fall 2014, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018

Research Interests

MEMS Sensors
Adaptive Structures
Active Wearable Prosthetic and Orthotic Devices
Flexible Pneumatic and Hydraulic Actuators
Soft Robots
Design of Compliant Systems

Research Areas

Decision and Control Systems
Design and Manufacturing
Social, Human, and Engineering Systems

Chapters in Books

C. Kim and G. Krishnan, "Synthesis Through the use of Building Blocks," Handbook of Compliant Mechanisms, Wiley, March 2013.
Marry, C., Dankowicz, H., & Krishnan, G. (2022). Continuation-Based Design of Self-Contacting Soft Robotic Manipulators. In G. Lacarbonara, W., Balachandran, B., Leamy, M.J., Ma, J., Tenreiro Machado, J.A., Stepan (Ed.), Advances in Nonlinear Dynamics. NODYCON Conference Proceedings Series (pp. 341350).
Hernandez, M. E., Sowers, R., Thompson, N., Krishnan, G., & Hsiao-Wecksler, E. T. (2022). Body-in-the-Loop Control of Soft Robotic Exoskeletons During Virtual Manual Labor Tasks. In Virtual Reality (pp. 99115). River Publishers.

Selected Articles in Journals

Articles in Conference Proceedings

R. M. Reck and G. Krishnan, Combining projects and informational sessions to create a comprehensive introduction to the department, in 2016 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2016, pp. 15.
N. Thompson, X. Zhang, F. Ayala, E. T. Hsiao-Wecksler, and G. Krishnan, Augmented Joint Stiffness and Actuation Using Architectures of Soft Pneumatic Actuators, in 2018 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2018, pp. 15331538. Acceptance rate: 40%
S. Patiballa, K. Uchikata, R. K. Ranganath, and G. Krishnan, A Conceptual Design Tool for Synthesis of Spatial Compliant and Shape Morphing Mechanisms, in Volume 5B: 42nd Mechanisms and Robotics Conference, ASME-IDETC 2018, p. V05BT07A009.
S. Satheeshbabu, N. Thompson, C. Xiao, and G. Krishnan, Architectures of Soft Pneumatic Actuators Inspired by Muscle Fiber Arrangements, in 2019 2nd IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft), 2019, pp. 271276.
N. Thompson, A. Sinha, G. Krishnan, "Characterizing Architectures of Soft Pneumatic Actuators for a Cable-Driven Shoulder Exoskeleton," in proceedings of 2019 IEEE Conference of Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Montreal, CA, May 20-24. Acceptance rate: 40%
G. Singh, S. Patiballa, X. Zhang, G. Krishnan, "A Pipe-Climbing Soft Robot," in proceedings of 2019 IEEE Conference of Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Montreal, CA, May 20-24. Acceptance rate: 40%
S. Satheeshbabu, N. Uppalapati, G. Chowdhary, and G. Krishnan, "Open Loop Position Control of Soft Continuum Arm Using Deep Reinforcement Learning," in proceedings of 2019 IEEE Conference of Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Montreal, CA, May 20-24. Acceptance rate: 40%
S. K. Patiballa, S. Satheeshbabu, and G. Krishnan, Load-Flow Based Design of Compliant Mechanisms With Embedded Soft Actuators, in Volume 5A: 43rd Mechanisms and Robotics Conference, ASME IDETC 2019. pV05AT07A020
S. Satheeshbabu, & G. Krishnan, "Analysis of Soft Mechanisms Using a Homogenized Strain Induced Model", in Proceedings of the 2020 USCToMM Symposium on Mechanical Systems and Robotics. USCToMM MSR 2020. Mechanisms and Machine Science, vol 83. Springer, Cham (pp. 179195)
Satheeshbabu, S., Uppalapati, N. K., Fu, T., & Krishnan, G. (2020). Continuous Control of a Soft Continuum Arm using Deep Reinforcement Learning. In 2020 3rd IEEE International Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft) (pp. 497503). IEEE.
Kumar Uppalapati, N., Walt, B., Havens, A., Mahdian, A., Chowdhary, G., & Krishnan, G. (2020). A Berry Picking Robot With A Hybrid Soft-Rigid Arm: Design and Task Space Control. In Robotics: Science and Systems XVI. Robotics: Science and Systems Foundation.
Thompson, N. A., Kocheril, A. G., Hsiao-Wecksler, E. T., & Krishnan, G. (2021). A Soft Robotic Simulator for Transseptal Puncture Training. In 2021 Design of Medical Devices Conference. American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
McDonagh, D., Arquines, K., Hsiao-Wecksler, E. T., Mansouri, M., Krishnan, G., Alabed, M., & Zallek, C. M. (2021). User Centered Approach to the Supra-Functional Needs of People Living with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). In 2021 Design of Medical Devices Conference. American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
AlBeladi, A., Krishnan, G., Belabbas, M.-A., & Hutchinson, S. (2021). Vision-Based Shape Reconstruction of Soft Continuum Arms Using a Geometric Strain Parametrization. In 2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) (pp. 1175311759). IEEE.
Kim, S. H., Chang, H.-S., Shih, C.-H., Uppalapati, N. K., Halder, U., Krishnan, G., Mehta, P. G., & Gazzola, M. (2021). A physics-informed, vision-based method to reconstruct all deformation modes in slender bodies. In 2022 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
Mansouri, M., Krishnan, G., & Hsiao-Wecksler, E. T. (2022). Design Guidelines for Moving a Human Body on a Bed Using Traveling Waves. In 2022 Design of Medical Devices Conference. American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Edward, S., Mansouri, M., Hsiao-Wecksler, E. T., Krishnan, G., (2022).Experimental Characterization and Modeling of a Unit Soft Air Bladder. In 2022 ASME International Design Technical Engineering conference and Computers Information Engineering Conference, St. Louis, MO, August 17-19
Ripperger, E., & Krishnan, G. (2023, August 20). Design Space Enumerations for Pneumatically Actuated Soft Continuum Manipulators. Volume 8: 47th Mechanisms and Robotics Conference (MR). In 2023 ASME International Design Technical Engineering Conference, Boston, MA, 2023
Walt, B., & Krishnan, G. (2023). Grasp State Classification in Agricultural Manipulation. 2023 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 42504255.

Patents

Bishop-Moser, J., Krishnan, G., & Kota, S. (2017). U.S. Patent No. 9,835,184. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Hsiao-Wecksler, E. T., Farooq, D., Xiao, C., Krishnan, G., Singh, G., & Oo, Y. L. (2017). U.S. Patent No. 9,662,263. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Magazine Articles

Teaching Honors

Engineering Council Outstanding Advisor Award (2016)
List of Teachers ranked Excellent by their students in Fall 2015 (2015)
Senior Design team awarded Gold by the Lincoln Arc Welding Association (2015)
Senior Design team awarded Bronze by the Lincoln Arc Welding Association (2018)

Research Honors

NSF Early Career Development Program Award (CAREER) (2015)
Freudenstien Young Investigator Award (2017)

Recent Courses Taught

SE 100 - Introduction to ISE
SE 310 - Dsgn of Structures & Mechanism
SE 411 - Reliability Engineering
SE 598 - Design of Soft Mechanisms
SE 598 - Soft Robotics