Horst Complex

prof.dr. S. Misra (Sarthak)

Full Professor Surgical Robotics
ET-BE-SR
Horst Complex W110
s.misra@utwente.nl
+31534892704
Business card

Sarthak Misra joined the University of Twente in 2009. He is a Full Professor in the Department of Biomechanical Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering Technology.  He directs the Surgical Robotics Laboratory.at Twente.
He earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA. Before his doctoral studies, he worked for three years as a dynamics and controls analyst on the International Space Station Program at MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates. He holds a Master of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering from McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Professor Misra has received numerous competitive awards, including multiple European Research Council (ERC) grants (Starting, Consolidator, and Proof-of-Concept), and several Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) grants (VENI, VIDI, and VICI). He has also been honored with the NASA Space Flight Awareness Award. He has served as co-chair of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Technical Committee on Surgical Robotics and as area co-chair of the IFAC Technical Committee on Biological and Medical Systems.
His research focuses on advancing surgical robotics and medical microrobotics. He develops robotic systems and control methods for minimally invasive procedures. His work spans magnetic actuation and navigation of flexible instruments, continuum robotic devices, precision needle steering, and untethered microrobotic systems for targeted intervention. His group integrates physical modeling, imaging-based control, and advanced actuation to enable high-dexterity robotic tools for challenging clinical tasks.

Please visit the Surgical Robotics Laboratory website for additional details. 

More information about Sarthak Misra on the 'Featured Scientists' page:

Expertise

  • Physics

    • Magnetic Field
    • Electromagnetism
    • Fiber Bragg Grating
    • Permanent Magnet

  • Computer Science

    • Robotics

  • Engineering

    • Actuation
    • Manipulator
    • Microrobots

Organisations

Ancillary activities

  • Univesity Medical Center GroningenGuest researcher UMCG

Publications

2026

Light-Actuated Fiber-Climbing Inchworm Robot Toward Endoluminal Navigation (2026)Advanced functional materials, 36(48). Article e75627. Lobosco, A., Song, L., Liu, F., Lin, Y.-H., Kalpathy Venkiteswaran, V., Zeng, H. & Misra, S.https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.75627Electronics-free soft robotic minitablet for on-demand gastric molecular sensing and diagnostics in vivo (2026)Science advances, 12(19), 1-15. Article eaea3309. Wang, C., Shi, R., Abalymov, A., Bao, H., Lam, T. K.-Y., Wang, Z., Mei, Y., Cai, Z., Chen, X.-Z., Misra, S. & Venkiteswaran, V. K.https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aea3309MAGTWIST: A Magnetically-Driven Rotary Actuator Using a Traveling-Wave With Integrated Stiffness Tunability (2026)Advanced functional materials, 36(31). Article e27009. Frieler, S., de Vries, J. P. P. M., Misra, S. & Venkiteswaran, V. K.https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202527009Constrained Optimization for Safe and Visibility-Aware Shared Control of Magnetically Actuated Microrobots (2026)IEEE transactions on automation science and engineering, 23, 7396-7408. Raphalen, L., Ferro, M., Posselli, N. R., Robuffo Giordano, P., Misra, S. & Pacchierotti, C.https://doi.org/10.1109/TASE.2026.3676201Study on Worst-Case Gradient Forces on Untethered Magnetic Devices Using Two Synchronized Rotating Magnetic Dipoles (2026)IEEE Magnetics Letters, 17. Article 3100105. Zhang, Z., Lin, B., Klingner, A., Feng, G., Liao, Y., Guo, J., Xue, W., Li, F., Geng, W., Misra, S. & Khalil, I. S. M.https://doi.org/10.1109/LMAG.2026.3657287

2025

Autonomous Sorting of Beads in a 3D Environment Using Levitating Magnetic Microrobots (2025)Advanced Intelligent Systems, 7(12). Article e202500200. Piñan Basualdo, F. N., Verde, C., Ficuciello, F. & Misra, S.https://doi.org/10.1002/aisy.202500200Design and control of a permanent magnet-based robotic system for navigating tetherless magnetic devices in viscous environments (2025)Scientific reports, 15(1). Article 31041. Zhang, Z., Klingner, A., Misra, S. & Khalil, I. S. M.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-15247-7Magnetic Localization and Manipulation of Locking Synchronous Motors (2025)Communications Engineering, 4(1). Article 91. Richter, M., Masjosthusmann, L., Makushko, P., Kalpathy Venkiteswaran, V., Makarov, D. & Misra, S.https://doi.org/10.1038/s44172-025-00424-3Non-uniform magnetic fields for collective behavior of self-assembled magnetic pillars (2025)Swarm Intelligence, 19, 317-332. Huaroto, J. J., Piñan Basualdo, F. N., Roos Ariëns, D. L. & Misra, S.https://doi.org/10.1007/s11721-024-00240-zHaptic Shared Control of a Pair of Microrobots for Telemanipulation using Constrained Optimization (2025)In IROS 2025 - 2025 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Conference Proceedings (pp. 17391-17397) (IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems). IEEE. Raphalen, L., Ferro, M., Misra, S., Giordano, P. R. & Pacchierotti, C.https://doi.org/10.1109/IROS60139.2025.11247670

Research profiles

Address

University of Twente

Horst Complex (building no. 20), room W110
De Horst 2
7522 LW Enschede
Netherlands

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