We research haptics, robotics, and interactive technologies.

Inspired by capabilities of humans and other animals, we design haptic devices, create soft or wearable robots, investigate new material technologies, advance applications in VR and health, and explore mechanisms of perception and action.

The lab is directed by Prof. Yon Visell, whose interdisciplinary research spans several fields, including robotics, acoustics, soft electronics, and haptics. He previously served as General Co-Chair for IEEE Haptics Symposium 2020 and 2022, which were meetings of the longest running conference series in the field of haptics. Visell has held positions at UCSB, and several other science, art, and engineering entities in North America and Europe. More about Visell in his bio…

Our lab includes an inspiring group of engineers, artists, and scientists. It is part of the Media Arts and Technology Program, Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at UCSB. We are based in the California NanoSystems Institute, affiliated with the Communication and Signal Processing group in the Department of ECE and with the Dynamic Systems, Control, and Robotics in the Department of ME. The lab is affiliated with the Center for Polymers and Organic Solids, the UCSB Research Center for Virtual Environments and Behavior, and with the UCSB Robotics Group. The lab has received a half dozen awards, and many more nominations, for work presented in prominent academic venues.

News and Events

10.2024 Check out our preprint reporting a new tactile display driven by projected light [PDF]. The displays are fast and can scale to thousands of pixels, or large areas, cost-efficiently. They fast use photons rather than electrons, directly converting projected light into visible tactile patterns via a passive surface populated with arrays of millimeter scale optotactile pixels, yielding displacements up to 1 millimeter, response times of tens of milliseconds. Work from our lab, led by PhD student Max Linnander.

1.2024 Celebrating the publication of two more works from our group. Our article, Interpersonal Transmission of Vibrotactile Feedback via Smart Bracelets: Mechanics and Perception, was recently published at IEEE Transactions on Haptics. It was authored by Taku Hachisu, Gregory Reardon, Yitian Shao, Kenji Suzuki, and Yon Visell. Another new paper, SkinSource: A Data-Driven Toolbox for Predicting Touch-Elicited Vibrations in the Upper Limb, with authors Neeli Tummala, Greg Reardon, Simone Fani, Dustin Goetz, Matteo Bianchi (Univ. Pisa), and Yon Visell, reports a new toolbox and dataset simulating upper limb tactile biomechanics for haptics, neuroscience, and biomechanics. It was accepted for the Proceedings of IEEE Haptics Symposium 2024.

12.2023 A preprint, Pre-neuronal biomechanical filtering modulates and diversifies whole-hand tactile encoding, by Neeli Tummala, with coauthors Greg Reardon, Bharat Dandu, Yitian Shao, Hannes Saal (Sheffield Univ.), and Yon Visell, is available on Bioarxiv. We would appreciate any feedback on this work, which is the culmination of a major effort led by Neeli.

7.2023 Our paper, Rendering Dynamic Source Motion in Surface Haptics via Wave Focusing, won the Best Paper Award in the Transactions on Haptics (Journal) paper track at IEEE World Haptics 2023. See details below. Congrats to authors Greg Reardon, Dustin Goetz, Max Linnander, and Prof. Visell. Greg Reardon’s presentation of the same paper was also nominated in the Best Presentation category. See PDF and details below.

7.2023 Neeli Tummala’s presentation of our research, entitled, Biomechanical filtering diversifies whole-hand tactile encoding, received a Best Presentation Award at the 2023 Festival of Touch. Congrats to authors Neeli Tummala, Prof. Hannes Saal, and Prof. Visell.

7.2023 Former RE Touch Lab postdoc Tung Nguyen-Dáng is starting a tenure-track faculty position at VIN university in Vietnam. Congrats!

2.2023 A new paper from our lab, entitled Shear Shock Waves Mediate Haptic Holography via Focused Ultrasound, led by Greg Reardon is published in the journal Science Advances. See link and details below.

5.2022 Three articles by lab affiliated postdoc Tung Nguyen-Dáng, and in collaboration with the lab of UCSB Professor Thuc-Quyen Nguyen, describe new organic (polymer) electrochemical transistors based on self-doped polyelectrolytes, and efficient methods for their fabrication. One of the papers is featured on the cover of the journal Advanced Materials. See image in gallery above and paper details below.

1.2022 Our new review paper, Soft, Wearable Robotics and Haptics: Technologies, Trends, and Emerging Applications, surveys recent research, technologies, opportunities, and challenges in soft, wearable robotics across many application domains.

3.2022 Prof. Visell is serving as General Co-Chair for the 2022 IEEE Haptics Symposium. The virtual conference is hosted via the IEEE Haptics Symposium YouTube Channel, and features video presentations of all 61 technical papers. Highlights from the conference, including award-candidate paper presentations, discussion, and keynotes, are featured in live streaming video conference events on March 22 and 23, 2022, which are now archived on the YouTube channel.

3.2022 Our new paper, A Smart Bracelet Supporting Tactile Communication and Interaction, by Stejara Dinulescu, Neeli Tummala, Greg Reardon, Bharat Dandu, Dustin Goetz, Sven Topp, and Prof. Visell, has been nominated for Best Paper Award at the 2022 IEEE Haptics Symposium. Congratulations to all!

7.2021 Congratulations to Dr. Yitian Shao who is recipient of the 2020 Eurohaptics Society Best PhD Thesis Award! Yitian has also been recently appointed as a faculty member at TU Dresden, as part of their CETI center of excellence.

7.2021 Our paper Proprioceptive Localization of the Fingers received the award for Best Journal Paper of 2020 in IEEE Transactions on Haptics. Congrats to authors B. Dandu, Prof. I. Kuling (TU Eindhoven), and Prof. Y. Visell.

7.2021 An article in IEEE Spectrum highlights our Tactile Echoes system for haptic augmented reality, with insightful commentary by lab member Anzu Kawazoe. This work is reported in our paper in IEEE Transactions on Haptics, by authors Anzu Kawazoe, Prof. Max Di Luca (U. Birmingham), and Prof. Visell.

5.2021 Congrats to lab member Neeli Tummala who has been awarded a SWE Intel Graduate Scholarship for her proposal on haptics and neural computation!

4.2021 Our new paper on frictional sliding on textured, lubricated elastomers - including touch contact by human and robot fingers - has been published in the journal Nature Materials. This research was a collaboration of our lab with the groups of Prof. Lilian Hsiao at NC State and Prof. Veronica Santos at UCLA. Citation details appear below. Congrats to the authors!

3.2021 Congratulations to lab members Stejara Dinulescu and Neeli Tummala who were awarded funding via competitive solicitations this week! Stejara was awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship for her proposal on haptics. Neeli was awarded funding from the P.E.O. Foundation based on her research proposal on haptics and neuroengineering. Neeli was also awarded a SWE Intel Graduate Scholarship for her proposal on haptics and neural computation. Outstanding!

Recent Publications (Selected)

(see Full list or Google Scholar)

M. Linnander, D. Goetz, G. Reardon, V. Kumar, E. Hawkes, Y. Visell
Tactile Displays Driven by Projected Light.
arXiv preprint 2410.05494, 2024.

N. Tummala, G. Reardon, B. Dandu, Y. Shao, H. Saal, Y. Visell
Pre-neuronal biomechanical filtering modulates and diversifies whole-hand tactile encoding.
bioArxiv (preprint), 2024.

N. Tummala, G. Reardon, S. Fani, D. Goetz, M. Bianchi, Y. Visell
SkinSource: A Data-Driven Toolbox for Predicting Touch-Elicited Vibrations in the Upper Limb.
Proc. IEEE Haptics Symposium, 2024. 🏆

A. Ivani, M. Catalano, G. Grioli, M. Bianchi, Y. Visell, A. Bicchi
Tactile Perception in Upper Limb Prostheses. [PDF]
IEEE Transactions on Haptics, 2024.

G. Reardon, B. Dandu, Y. Shao, Y. Visell,
Shear Shock Waves Mediate Haptic Holography via Focused Ultrasound. [PDF]
Science Advances, 2023.

G. Reardon, D. Goetz, M. Linnander, Y. Visell,
Rendering Dynamic Source Motion in Surface Haptics via Wave Focusing. [PDF]
IEEE Transactions on Haptics, 2023. 🏆 🏅

N. Kastor*, B. Dandu*, V. Bassari, G. Reardon, Y. Visell,
Ferrofluid Electromagnetic Actuators for High-Fidelity Haptic Feedback.
Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, To Appear, 2023.

D. Goetz*, G. Reardon*, Max Linnander, Y. Visell,
Dynamic Haptic Feedback in Wave-Mediated Surface Haptics: A Modular Platform. [PDF]
Proc. IEEE World Haptics Conference, 2023.

N. Tummala, Y. Shao, Y. Visell,
Spatiotemporal Organization of Touch Information in Tactile Neuron Population Responses. [PDF]
Proc. IEEE World Haptics Conference, 2023.

T. Hachisu, G. Reardon, Y. Shao, K. Suzuki, Y. Visell,
Interpersonal Transmission of Vibrotactile Feedback via Smart Bracelets: Mechanics and Perception.
IEEE Transactions on Haptics, 2023.

M. Zhu, A. Ferstera, S. Dinulescu, N. Kastor, M. Linnander, E. Hawkes, Y. Visell,
A Peristaltic Soft, Wearable Robot for Compression and Massage Therapy. [PDF]
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2023.

T. Nguyen-Dáng et al.,
Dual-mode organic electrochemical transistors based on self-doped conjugated polyelectrolytes for reconfigurable electronics.
Advanced Materials, 2022.

M. Zhu, S. Biswas, S. Dinulescu, N. Kastor, E. Hawkes, Y. Visell,
Soft, Wearable Robotics and Haptics: Technologies, Trends, and Emerging Applications.
Proceedings of the IEEE, 2022.

T. Nguyen-Dáng et al.,
Efficient Fabrication of Organic Electrochemical Transistors via Wet Chemical Processing.
ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2022.

S. Dinulescu, N. Tummala, G. Reardon, B. Dandu, D. Goetz, S. Topp, Y. Visell,
A Smart Bracelet Supporting Tactile Communication and Interaction.
Proc. IEEE Haptics Symposium, 2022. 🏅

T. Nguyen-Dáng et al.,
Biomaterial-based Solid-Electrolyte Organic Electrochemical Transistors for Electronic and Neuromorphic Applications.
Advanced Electronic Materials, 2021.

Y. Peng, C. Serfass, A. Kawazoe, Y. Shao, K. Gutierrez, C. Hill, V. Santos. Y. Visell, L. Hsiao,
Elastohydrodynamic friction of robotic and human fingers on soft micropatterned substrates.
Nature Materials, April, 2021.

Y. Hao, Y. Visell,
Beyond Soft Hands: Efficient Grasping with Non-Anthropomorphic Soft Grippers.
Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 2021.

A. Kawazoe, G. Reardon, E. Woo, M. Di Luca, Y. Visell,
Tactile Echoes: Multisensory Augmented Reality for the Hand.
IEEE Transactions on Haptics, 2021. 🏅 Featured in IEEE Spectrum.

S. Biswas, Y. Visell,
Haptic Perception, Mechanics, and Material Technologies for Virtual Reality.
Advanced Functional Materials, 2021.

Y. Hao, S. Biswas, E. Hawkes, T. Wang, M. Zhu, L. Wen, Y. Visell,
A Multimodal, Enveloping Soft Gripper: Shape Conformation, Bioinspired Adhesion, and Expansion-Driven Suction.
IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 2o21. arxiv.org:1912.970438

Y. Shao, V. Hayward, Y. Visell,
Compression of Dynamic Tactile Information in the Human Hand. [PDF] [Supplement]
Science Advances, 6:eaaz158, 2020. Featured in Science Podcast.

M. Zhu, T. N. Do, E. W. Hawkes, Y. Visell,
Fluidic Fabric Muscle Sheets for Wearable and Soft Robotics. [PDF]
Soft Robotics 7 (2) 2020. Cover article (April, 2020).  Highly cited article.

B. Dandu, Y. Shao, Y. Visell,
Rendering Spatiotemporal Haptic Effects via the Physics of Waves in the Skin.
IEEE Transactions on Haptics, 14 (2), 2020. 🏅

S. Biswas, Y. Shao, T. Hachisu, T. Nguyen-Dang, Y. Visell.
Integrated Soft Optoelectronics for Wearable Health Monitoring. [PDF]
Advanced Materials Technologies, 2020.

Y. Shao, H. Hui, Y. Visell,
A Wearable Tactile Sensor Array for Large Area Remote Vibration Sensing in the Hand. [PDF]
IEEE Sensors Journal 20 (12), 2020.

G. Reardon, N. Kastor, Y. Shao, Y. Visell,
Elastowave: Localized Tactile Feedback in a Soft Haptic Interface via Focused Elastic Waves.  [PDF]
Proc. IEEE Haptics Symp., 2020. 🏆 🏅

T. Hachisu, G. Reardon, Y. Shao, K. Suzuki, Y. Visell,
Interpersonal Vibrotactile Feedback via Waves Transmitted through the Skin: Mechanics and Perception. [PDF]
Proc. IEEE Haptics Symp., 2020. 🏅

Y. Shao, S. Ma, S. H. Yoon, Y. Visell, J. Holbery,
SurfaceFlow: Large Area Haptic Display via Compliant Liquid Dielectric Actuators. [PDF]
Proc. IEEE Haptics Symp., 2020.

S. Biswas, Y. Visell,
Emerging Materials Technologies for Haptics. [PDF]
Advanced Materials Technologies 4 (1900042), 2019.  Top 10% accessed article.

S. Patwardhan, A. Kawazoe, D. Kerr, M. Nakatani, Y. Visell,
Dynamics and Perception in the Thermal Grill Illusion.  [PDF]
IEEE Transactions on Haptics 12 (4), 2019.

B. Dandu, I. Kuling, Y. Visell,
Proprioceptive Localization of the Fingers: Coarse, Biased, and Context-Sensitive. [PDF]
IEEE Transactions on Haptics 13 (2), 2019. 🏆

T. N. Do, H. Phan, T.-Q. Nguyen, and Y. Visell,  
Miniature Soft Electromagnetic Actuators for Robotic Applications.  [PDF+SI]
Advanced Functional Materials, 2018.  Cover article. 

M. Janko, M. Wiertlewski, Y. Visell, 
Contact geometry and mechanics predict friction forces during tactile surface exploration. 
Nature Scientific Reports, 8 (4868), 2018.

B. Li, Y. Shi, A. K. Fontecchio, Y. Visell, 
Mechanical Imaging of Soft Tissues with a Highly Compliant Tactile Sensing Array.  [PDF]  
IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 65 (3), 2017.

T. N. Do, Y. Visell, 
Stretchable, Twisted Conductive Microtubules for Wearable Computing, Robotics, Electronics, and Healthcare.  [PDF]
Nature Scientific Reports 7 (1753), 2017.

Y. Shao, V. Hayward, Y. Visell, 
Spatial Patterns of Cutaneous Vibration During Whole-Hand Haptic Interactions.  [PDF+SI] 
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113 (15), 2016.

Awards

2024 Best Conference Paper Award 🏆 IEEE Haptics Symposium. N. Tummala*, G. Reardon*, S. Fani, D. Goetz, M. Bianchi, Y. Visell.
2024 Distinguished Demonstration Award 🏅 IEEE Haptics Symposium. M. Linnander, D. Goetz, G. Reardon, Y. Visell
2023 Best Paper Award, Journal Track 🏆 IEEE World Haptics Conference. G. Reardon, D. Goetz, M. Linnander, Y. Visell
2023 Best Presentation Award 🏆 Festival of Touch Symposium. N. Tummala, H. Saal, Y. Visell.
2023 Best Presentation Award Nomination 🏅 IEEE World Haptics Conference. G. Reardon, D. Goetz, M. Linnander, Y. Visell.
2022 Best Application Paper Award Honorable Mention 🏅 IEEE Transactions on Haptics. A. Kawazoe, G. Reardon, E. Woo, M. Di Luca, Y. Visell
2022 Best Journal Paper Award Honorable Mention 🏅 IEEE Transactions on Haptics. B. Dandu, Y. Shao, Y. Visell
2022 Best Paper Award Runner Up 🏅 IEEE Haptics Symposium. S. Dinulescu, N. Tummala, G. Reardon, et al.
2021 Best PhD Thesis Award 2020 🏆 Eurohaptics Society. Y. Shao.
2021 Best Journal Paper Award 2020 🏆 IEEE Transactions on Haptics. B. Dandu, I. Kuling, Y. Visell
2021 Encouragement Award 🏅 Workshop, Inst. Electrical Eng. of Japan. T. Hachisu, G. Reardon, Y. Shao, K. Suzuki, Y. Visell
2020 Best Technical Paper Award 🏆 IEEE Haptics Symposium. G. Reardon, N. Kastor, Y. Shao, Y. Visell
2020 Best Presentation Honorable Mention 🏅 IEEE Haptics Symposium. G. Reardon, N. Kastor, Y. Shao, Y. Visell
2020 Best Paper Honorable Mention 🏅 ACM CHI. M. Zhu et al.
2020 Best Presentation Award Honorable Mention 🏅 IEEE Haptics Symposium. T. Hachisu et al.
2020 Most Promising Work-in-Progress Hon. Mention 🏅IEEE Haptics Symposium. S. Dinulescu, G. Reardon, S. Topp, Y. Visell
2019 Best Demonstration Award 🏆 IEEE World Haptics Conference. B. Dandu*, Y. Shao*, Y. Visell
2019 Best Student Paper Finalist 🏅 IEEE World Haptics Conference. B. Dandu*, Y. Shao*, et al.
2019 Best Paper Award Nomination 🏅 IEEE World Haptics Conference. B. Dandu*, Y. Shao*, et al.
2018 National Science Foundation CAREER Award 🏆 Y. Visell
2018 Best Student Presentation Finalist 🏅 IEEE Haptics Symposium S. Patwardhan, et al.
2018 Best Paper Award Nomination🏅IEEE Haptics Symposium S. Patwardhan, et al.
2018 Best Paper Award Nomination 🏅 IEEE Haptics Symposium. B. Dandu, I. Kuling, Y. Visell
2017 Hellman Faculty Fellowship 🏆 Y. Visell
2016 Best Paper Award Runner Up 🏅IEEE Haptics Symposium. Y. Shao, Y. Visell
2016 Google Faculty Research Award 🏆 Y. Visell
2016 Best Paper Award, Work-in-Progress Category 🏆 IEEE Haptics Symposium. M. Chartier, N. Thomas, Y. Shao, Y. Visell
2016 Best Paper Award Finalist 🏅IEEE Haptics Symposium, R. Lerch, H. Cui, S. Patwardhan, Y. Visell, C. Sims
2016 Silver Award, Best Project Runner Up 🏅AES Student Design Competition. O. Campbell, C. Roads, A. Cabréra, M. Wright, Y. Visell
2014 Best Paper Honorable Mention 🏅 Eurohaptics Conference. M. Janko, R. Primerano, Y. Visell
2010 Best Technical Paper Award 🏆 IEEE Haptics Symposium. Y. Visell, J. Cooperstock

The lab has been generously supported through grants from the National Science Foundation, tech, VR and healthcare industries. We enjoy collaboration and encourage interested parties to contact Prof. Visell. (If he doesn’t reply immediately try emailing him again!)

We hold lab meetings about every week.  Interested in working with us? Stop by a lab meeting or read some of our papers and contact us. Engineers, scientists, artists, and designers are all welcome. 

UCSB is an outstanding place to work, and College of Engineering is renowned for its research excellence.  Engineering faculty members include three Nobel Laureates, 37 members of the National Academies of Engineering or Invention, numerous IEEE Fellows and other awards. UCSB was ranked the #1 public university in the world for engineering research citation impact (Leiden, 2015, 2016), and ranked #9 in the world for producing Nobel laureates (Times Higher Education, 2017).  Our Electrical and Computer Engineering and Mechanical Engineering graduate programs ranked in the top 5 in the most recent US National Research Council ratings, and our Materials and Chemical Engineering graduate programs consistently rank among the top 5 in the US (US News and NRC).

Santa Barbara is a hub for high technology and innovative startups, with one of the highest levels of venture capital investment per capita in the United States.  A very incomplete sampling of companies in and near Santa Barbara: Sonos, FLIR, SpaceX, TrackR, Cree, Biopac, Medtronic, InTouch Health (telemedicine / robotics), Productive Robotics, Raytheon, AppFolio, Moog, LogMeIn, Yardi, Zoom, Toyon, L3, Curvature, Eucalyptus (cloud computing), Inogen, bioIQ, Advanced Scientific Concepts (Lidar), Milo, NuSil, Spectron Microsystems, Channel Technologies Group / Piezo Kinetics, Crystalline Mirror Solutions, Freedom Photonics, Owl Biomedical, WorldViz (VR), D2 Technologies, SORAA (solid state lighting / lasers), Apeel Sciences, and many, many others.