Matei Ciocarlie works on robotics, looking to discover how artificial mechanisms can interact with the world as skillfully as biological organisms. His main interest is to build robots that can operate in new, unforeseen situations, expressing intelligence through physical interaction with their environment. Examples include robotic manipulators that can handle clutter similar to what can be expected in a typical home, wearable robotic rehabilitation devices that patients can use as they go about their daily life, and teleoperated robots that simplify the operator’s job by using their own sense of the surrounding environment. He seeks to apply advances in these areas in field as diverse as manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare.