Biomimetic Millisystems Lab

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The goal of the Biomimetic Millisystems Lab is to harness features of animal manipulation, locomotion, sensing, actuation, mechanics, dynamics, and control strategies to radically improve millirobot capabilities. Research in the lab ranges from fundamental understanding of mechanical principles to novel fabrication techniques to system integration of autonomous millirobots. The lab works closely with biologists to develop models of function which can be tested on engineered and natural systems. The lab's current research is centered on fly-size flapping flight, and all-terrain crawling using nanostructured adhesives.

NEWS
DASH 16 gram Hexapedal Robot (Oct. 2009) Using compliant fiber board as structural material, and a single main driver motor, the DASH robot is capable of 15 body lengths per second on flat surfaces. The structure is resilient and survives ground impact at terminal velocity of 10 meters per second. IROS 2009. Video (Youtube).
Combined Lamellar Nanofibrillar Array (Oct. 2009) Lamellar structures act as base support planes for high-aspect ratio HDPE fiber arrays. Nanofiber arrays on lamella can adhere to a smooth grating with 5 times greater shear strength than flat nanofiber array. Langmuir, Oct 2009
Congratulations to Aaron Hoover for being awarded first place in the Graduate Robots Division of the ASME Student Mechanism and Robot Design Competition, part of the 2009 ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences, for ``RoACH: An Autonomous 2.4 gram Crawling Hexapod Robot''! (Sep. 2, 2009)
Congratulations to Kevin Ma for being awarded second place in the Mechanisms- Undergraduate Division of the ASME Student Mechanism and Robot Design Competition, part of the 2009 ASME International Design Engineering Technical Conferences, for ``Flexure-based Ornithopter Transmission Mechanism''! (Sep. 2, 2009)
Australia Broadcast Corp feature on work in Polypedal and Biomimetic Millisystem Labs (May 2009) Catalyst
Directional Adhesion of Angled Microfibers (Nov. 2008) Angled polypropylene microfibers show strong directional adhesion effects, with shear strength in direction of fibers 45 times larger than sliding against fiber directions. A 1 sq. cm. patch supported a load of 450 grams in shear. Directional adhesion of gecko inspired angled microfiber arrays, Applied Physics Letters, 2008.
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Current Research Projects (2009)

Biologically Inspired Synthetic Gecko Adhesives
Micro and nanofiber structures are designed to provide high friction and adhesive forces through mechanical control of surface interactions.

Ambulating Robots
The goal of this work is to develop high performance ambulating milli-robots using minimal actuation and passive stabilization mechanisms, combined with onboard high level control.

Ornithopter Project Bioinspired sensors and control strategies are being developed for coordinated flight of multiple ornithopters.		Micromechanical Flying Insect The goal of this project is to develop an autonomous 0.1 gram flying robot using insect-inspired wing kinematics.
Millirobot Rapid Prototyping We are developing a low cost (<$1000)) desktop factory which will allow users to build millirobots from a kit of components.		Folding Prototyping of Meso- and Milli- Robots Using laser cutting of composite materials, we rapidly prototype small scale robots using flexure technology. Example structures with dozens of joints have been constructed.

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