Bio

I am an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. My research interests include robotics, dynamics, and controls with a specific focus on soft robots.

I am originally from Farmington Hills, Michigan and received a B.S. in Engineering Sciences from Harvard University in 2013. I worked as a math teacher at the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy in Detroit from 2013-2015, earned a PhD in mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan in 2020, and was a postdoc at Harvard University from 2020-2023.

Affiliations

• Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan
• Former postdoctoral fellow in the Harvard Microrobotics Lab
• Former NSF Graduate Research Fellow
• Former PhD student in ROAHM Lab, University of Michigan
• Former PhD student in the Compliant Systems Design Lab, University of Michigan
• Former PhD student in RAM Lab, University of Michigan
• Former teacher at Jalen Rose Leadership Academy
• Former undergraduate researcher in the Harvard Biorobotics Lab, Harvard University

News

• Accepted faculty position at University of Michigan (Oct. 31, 2022)
  I will be joining the mechanical engineering faculty at the University of Michigan, beginning next fall (2023)! If you are interested in joining my lab, please email me at dbruder@seas.harvard.edu
• Paper presented at IROS (Oct. 25, 2022)
  Yves Martin presented our paper, "A Proprioceptive Method for Soft Robots using Inertial Measurement Units," by Yves J. Martin, Daniel Bruder, and Robert J. Wood at IROS in Kyoto, Japan.
• Paper accepted to RAL (Nov. 6, 2021)
  Our paper, "The Chain-link Actuator: Exploiting the Bending Stiffness of McKibben Artificial Muscles to Achieve Larger Contraction Ratios," by Daniel Bruder and Robert J. Wood was accepted to IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. [pdf]
• Paper accepted to IROS + RAL (Jun. 17, 2021)
  Our paper, "Koopman-based Control of a Soft Continuum Manipulator Under Variable Loading Conditions," by Daniel Bruder, Xun Fu, and Ram Vasudevan was accepted to IROS and IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. [pdf]