Robotics
Micro & nanorobotics
Nanorobotic origami structures, robotic microassembly and manipulation at small scales.
Research / Micro & nanorobotics
Yuning LeiPh.D.
Research Associate
University of Oldenburg, Germany
My research focuses on microrobotics, nanorobotics, SEM-based nanomanipulation, micro/nanofabrication and microactuation.
Featured worksub-50 µm
Laser-actuated silica origami
A sub-50 µm silica origami structure mounted on a tapered optical fiber.
Human hair shown for comparison. Scale bar: 20 µm.
Research themes
Areas of focus.
Long-term research specializations across robotics, manipulation and fabrication.
Research overviewManipulation
SEM-based nanomanipulation
Robotic microassembly, liquid-metal nanocharacterization and contact-angle measurement in SEM.
Fabrication & actuation
Fabrication & microactuation
FIB-based fabrication, ion-induced folding and actuation of silica origami structures.
Visits, talks & milestones
News & activities.
Nanomaterials exchange at McGill
A research visit to Prof. Changhong Cao’s NanoFactory Laboratory with Dr. James Mead.
Montréal, Canada
At AMiR with Prof. Erdem Alaca
With AMiR colleagues during a visit from Koç University through the NanowireMEMS collaboration.
Oldenburg, Germany
Research exchange in Louisville
Visiting the J.B. Speed School of Engineering with Dr. James Mead and Dr. Liang Ma.
Louisville, USA
Selected work
Research projects.
DFG research project
LiCoVac
Liquid Metal Contact Angle Measurement in Vacuum — research on liquid-metal droplets and contact-angle measurement in SEM.
Research project PI
Doctoral research
Nanorobotic origami at an optical fiber tip
Doctoral research on silica origami fabrication, robotic microassembly, characterization and actuation in SEM.
Ph.D. fellow, FEMTO-ST Institute · October 2019 – March 2023
Scientific contributions
Featured publications.
Journal article
Reproducible fabrication of liquid metal droplets via electromigration and FIB sputtering in SEM
Liquid-metal droplet fabrication using electromigration and focused ion beam sputtering inside a scanning electron microscope.
publishedJournal of Micro and Bio Robotics, 21, article 14, 2025.
Journal article
Large-Workspace Polyarticulated Micro-Structures Based-On Folded Silica for Tethered Nanorobotics
Folded-silica polyarticulated microstructures for tethered nanorobotics.
publishedIEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 7(1), pp. 88–95, 2022.
Academic profile
About Yuning.
I am a Research Associate in Microrobotics and Control Engineering (AMiR) at the University of Oldenburg.
I received my Ph.D. in Engineering Science from Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté in 2023, following doctoral research on nanorobotic origami at FEMTO-ST Institute.
About & CVContact