Jian Sheng Dai - Selected Publications#

Jian Sheng Dai has published over 371 international journal papers and 284 peer-reviewed conference papers as the corresponding author or lead author, 7 authored books, and edited 9 journal special issues, with the H-index 65 (by Google Scholar) and H-index 52 (by Web of Science). This high H-index is rare in the community of mechanisms. His total citations exceed 15,000. He is the fourth most cited author in the field of mechanism and machine science theory in the consecutive 30 years from 1990 to 2020 and is also listed as the second among the top 35 scholars in the world (Flores, P., 2022. A bibliometric overview of Mechanism and Machine Theory journal: Publication trends from 1990 to 2020. Mechanism and Machine Theory, 175:104965).

[1] Wang, K. and Dai, J.S., 2023. The dual Euler-Rodrigues formula in various mathematical forms and their intrinsic relations. Mechanism and Machine Theory, 181:105184.

Jian Sheng Dai made substantial research in the theory of mechanisms and robotics. Starting from his 1995 IMechE journal "finite twist mapping" paper, to his 2002 Royal Society transaction "null space construction" paper, then to his 2012 ASME transaction "finite displacement screw operator" paper, he developed a set of theories for design and analysis of mechanisms and robots. This paper is a six-dimensional extension of Jian Sheng Dai's 2018 Crossley Award paper, and builds a new way of using these parameters to construct the Lie algebra, the dual Euler-Rodrigues formula, and the dual quaternion. The paper will become a classical reference.

[2] Tang, Z., Wang, K., Spyrakos-Papastavridis, E. and Dai, J.S., 2022. Origaker: a novel multi-mimicry quadruped robot based on a metamorphic mechanism. Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics, 14(6): 061005. (cited 10 times, downloaded 203 times, pageviewed 277 times).

Jian Sheng Dai applies Origami and decorations to the design of robots that started from his unique design of the metamorphic robot multifingered hand in 2006. This paper opens a new research branch in origami-inspired metamorphic robots, which puts forward a novel idea of using a metamorphic mechanism as the trunk of a walking robot and associates origami with a robot walker. With the metamorphic trunk, the paper resolves the adaptability of a robot when facing terrain change and environmental variation. The paper presents a novel way of using branch variation and configuration transformation to enhance robot locomobility. The candidate is a principal author and the corresponding author.

[3] Qiu, C. and Dai, J.S., 2021. Analysis and Synthesis of Compliant Parallel Mechanisms — Screw Theory Approach, Springer Tracks in Advanced Robotics, Springer, London, ISBN: 978-3-030-48313-5. (cited by 5 papers published in international leading journals and with 4385 accesses).

This book is the first-ever monograph that specifically provides the theoretical foundation for compliant parallel mechanisms, and systematically addresses two long-standing open problems: how to reveal the compliance characteristics of flexible elements and how to complete their configuration design. The monograph has since been attracting extremely quick research attention from the community with 4385 accesses. Part of the main results has later been cited for nanorobot research, robot driving systems, and mechatronics in leading international journals such as Mech Mach Theory, Mech Mach Science, and ASME J Mech Rob.

[4] Dai, J.S. 2020, 2nd ed, 2014, 1st ed. Screw Algebra and Lie Groups and Lie Algebra, (in Chinese) Higher Education Press, ISBN: 9787040318456. ISBN 978-7-04-054489-3. (sold over 4876 books, sole author).

With Jian Sheng Dai's twenty more years of dedication in the geometry and fundamental theory of mechanisms and robotics, this book builds a milestone in the field of mechanisms design and robot development. The book is the first-ever monograph that presents screw algebra in vector and matrix form, and Lie groups and Lie algebras in a way that engineers and scientists can understand, based on the linear algebra and matrix theories. The main achievement of this monograph is recognized by the "ASME DED Mechanism and Robotics Award". The book is a translation of the draft of the English origin (Dai, J.S. 2023, Screw Algebra and Kinematics Approach for Mechanisms and Robotics, Springer Tracks in Advanced Robotics, Springer, London).

[5] Li, M., Kang, R., Branson, D. T., & Dai, J.S., 2017. Model-free control for continuum robots based on an adaptive Kalman filter, IEEE/ASME Trans. Mechatronics, 23(1):286-297. (citation 114).

This paper presents a novel way of obtaining the Jacobian matrix for continuum robots. The new method enabled an efficient way of controlling a continuum robot in uncertainty in the robot kinematic model. The paper has since been attracting extremely quick research attention from the community with 114 citations and influenced subsequent research. It was commented by (Treesatayapun, J. Franklin Institute, 2020) as an optimal way for linear systems and by Delft team (Fang, T-RO, 2020) as a new way with the required data input for estimating the Jacobian. The paper was further cited as a model-free controller by Imperial College (Franco, IJRR, 2020). The candidate is a principal author.

[6] Salerno, M., Zhang, K., Menciassi, A., & Dai, J.S., 2016. A Novel 4-DOF Origami Grasper With an SMA-Actuation System for Minimally Invasive Surgery, IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ROBOTICS, 32(3):484-498. (citation 98).

This paper for the first time uses the famous waterbomb Origami pattern to design a novel parallel device with rigorous analysis and demonstration. The work was commented on by a Springer book (Dolph, FutureRoboticSystems, 2019) as a novel advancement for extensive gripping and actuation, and used by others e.g. at EPFL (Firouzeh, T-RO, 2017; Mintchev, Nature Machine Intelligence, 2019) and at Scuola Superiore Sant’anna (Cianchetti, Soft Robotics 2017). Further the paper presents a novel way of creating soft robots for minimally invasive surgery, commented as a novel advancement (Robotic-Assisted M.I.S, 2019), which led to EPSRC award EP/S019790/1 of £1.4M with Leeds Teaching Hospital for design. The candidate is a principal and corresponding author.

[7] Dai, J.S., 2015. Euler-Rodrigues formula variations, quaternion conjugation and intrinsic connections, Mechanism and Machine Theory, 92:134-144. (sole author, citation 221, received CROSSLEY Award by Mechanism and Machine Theory, 1/180).

With Jian Sheng Dai's pioneering work in mechanisms geometry and kinematics, this paper for the first time associates both Euler work and Rodrigues work together to present the Euler-Rodrigues formula variation, and for the first time to reveal their intrinsic connections. This leading paper associates algebra, quaternions, and Lie groups to robot's geometry and presents an elegant connections. The paper is the highest downloaded article on Mech. Mach. Theory and was awarded the "2018 Crossley Award" from Mech. Mach. Theory. The relevant work led to EPSRC award EP/P026087/1 of £700k with Queen University Belfast.

[8] Kuo, C., Dai, J.S., and Dasgupta, P., 2012. Kinematic design considerations for minimally invasive surgical robots: an overview, The International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery, 8(2):127-145. (citation 187).

This is the first ever paper that provides a detailed survey of the kinematic design of minimally invasive surgery (MIS) robots, addressed the research opportunity in MIS robots for kinematicians, and clarified the kinematic point of MIS robots, as a highly referable literature for the medical community. The proposed robots have been later exploited in many publications, which is confirmed by 187 citations in top journals, such as Nature Machine Intelligence (see 2020, 2, 437-446), IEEE T-RO (see 2016, 32(3), 484-498), IEEE T-BE (see 2017, 65(1), 165-177; 2014, 61(9), 2458-2466), IEEE T-IE (see 2013, 61(7), 3753-3764; 2021, 69(9), 9246-9257.), IEEE T-MRB (see 2021, 3(2), 392-401; 2022, 4(3), 656-666.), IEEE/ASME T-Mech (see 2021, 26(6), 2977-2985; 2015, 20(6), 2996-3008), RC-IM (see 2018, 50, 193-202). The candidate is a principal and corresponding author.

[9] Kuo, C., Dai, J.S. and Yan, H., 2009. Reconfiguration principles and strategies for reconfigurable mechanisms, 2009 ASME/IFToMM International Conference on Reconfigurable Mechanisms and Robots (ReMAR 2009), London, UK, 2009, pp. 1-7. Print ISBN:978-88-89007-37-2, CD:978-1-876346-58-4, INSPEC Accession Number 10794449 K (citation 88).

This paper presented in the First ASME/IFToMM International Triennial Conference on Reconfigurable Mechanisms and Robots (ReMAR 2009) held in London. The conference is the start of this prestigious series created by the candidate and led to 2012 in Tianjin, 2015 in Beijing, 2018 in Delft Netherlands, 2021 in Toronto Canada. The 2014 triennial conference will be at Purdue University in US. The conference was supported by ASME, IFToMM, and IEEE. The conference received papers from 18 countries and regions and had a reception rate at 64%. This paper revealed principles and strategies for reconfiguration in reconfigurable mechanisms and robots.

[10] Dai, J.S. and Rees Jones, J., 1999. Mobility in metamorphic mechanisms of foldable/erectable kinds, Journal of Mechanical Design, Trans. ASME, 121(3): 375-382. Also, in 25th ASME Biennial Mechanisms Conference, DETC98/MECH5902, 13-16 September, 1998, Atlanta, USA. (citation 712).

This paper was awarded the 1998 ASME Mechanisms Committee Biennial Best Paper as the only awarded paper in this biennial conference. The paper proposed a class of novel mechanisms coined as "metamorphic mechanisms" that change mobility and mechanism topology during motion, leading to subsequent research in metamorphic mechanisms in particular and in reconfigurable mechanisms in general. The paper aroused substantial global interest with a new field of study for metamorphic and reconfigurable mechanisms. In addition, the paper for the first time put forward the Origami-inspired mechanism equivalents. As commented by Professor Mruthyunjaya the paper “opens up new avenues for applying mechanism theory to achieve innovation in the design of such metamorphic mechanisms” in his “kinematic structure of mechanisms revisited” for reviewing the work on kinematic structures over 100 years.