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Lecturer
UQ Profile
School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering
The University of Queensland
Education
2012 – 2016: PhD in Mechanical Engineering
Nanyang Technological University Singapore
2008 – 2010: MEng in Manufacturing Engineering
2003 – 2008: BEng in Mechanical Engineering
Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (Đại học Bách Khoa Tp. HCM), Vietnam
I am currently a lecturer at the School of Mechanical & Mining Engineering, The University of Queensland, Australia. I was a postdoctoral researcher and a Human Frontier Science Program Cross-disciplinary Postdoc Fellow working on low-latency lock-on systems for high resolution videography of untethered insects for large recording volume and brain imaging for freely walking Drosophila in the Straw Lab, University of Freiburg. Before joining the Straw Lab, I worked on insect-machine hybrid robots (cyborg insects) and nanoparticle electrocatalysts during my PhD and postdoc in the Sato Lab, Nanyang Technological University Singapore. With my colleagues, I developed electrical stimulation protocols for locomotion control of freely flying (Mecynorhina torquate) and walking (Zophobas morio) beetles. My dream is to develop autonomous insect-machine hybrid robots for search and rescue mission. The insect’s small size, amazing locomotion capability, flexibility, durability, and adaptability will help the hybrid robots easily pass through the rubble of collapse structures to search for lives. Although I can control insect locomotion, how and why insect can perform amazing locomotion is still a big question to me. Thus, I decided to switch gear to neurobiology to learn more about insect neural circuit and hope that one day I can really demystify my “black box” of insect locomotion and develop better stimulation protocols for insect locomotion control.
I also enjoy designing and developing new tools and equipment for my experiments. It helps to maintain my other part as a Mechanical Engineer trained during my Bachelor and Master degrees in the Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, or Đại học Bách Khoa Tp. Hồ Chí Minh. My journey in academic pathway also started here during my time in the Pham Lab working on compliance based force/torque sensor. That is also why low cost force/torque sensor for insect locomotion keep jumping in my mind randomly 😃.
My research interest includes insect-machine hybrid robot, biohybrid robots, bio-inspired robotics, insect biomechanics, insect flight, insect locomotion, insect tracking, brain imaging, neurobiology, and electrocatalyst.
Selected demonstrations:
Selected publications:
1. Nguyen, H. D., Dung, V. T., Sato, H.*, Vo-Doan, T.T.*, “Efficient Autonomous Navigation for Terrestrial Insect-Machine Hybrid Systems.” Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical ,376 (A), 132988, 2023.
2. Tran-Ngoc, P. T., Gan, J.H., Vo-Doan, T. T.*, Sato, H.* “A robotics leg inspired from an insect leg.” Bioinspiration & Biomimetics,17 (5), 056008, 2022 .
3. Vo-Doan, T. T. & Straw, A. D. “Millisecond insect tracking system“. arXiv:2002.12100 [q-bio] (2020).
4. Vo-Doan, T. T., Tan, M. Y. W., Bui, X. H. & Sato, H. “An Ultralightweight and Living Legged Robot“. Soft Robotics 5, 17–23 (2017).
5. Vo-Doan, T. T., Wang, J., Poon, K. C., Tan, D. C. L., Khezri, B., Webster, R. D., Su, H. & Sato, H. Theoretical Modelling and Facile Synthesis of a Highly Active Boron-Doped Palladium Catalyst for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 55, 6842–6847 (2016). (Frontispiz)
6. Sato, H., Vo-Doan, T. T., Kolev, S., Huynh, N. A., Zhang, C., Massey, T. L., van Kleef, J., Ikeda, K., Abbeel, P. & Maharbiz, M. M. Deciphering the Role of a Coleopteran Steering Muscle via Free Flight Stimulation. Current Biology 25, 798–803 (2015). (Cover page)
UQ Biorobotics Lab 