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 all-terrain crawling using nanostructured adhesives and bioinspired flight.

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NEWS
DASH+Wings: Wing Assisted Running (Oct. 2011) DASH+Wings is a small hexapedal winged robot that uses flapping wings to increase its ground locomotion capabilities. The wings increase climbing slopes and stability, but do not provide enough thrust for flight. A wing assisted running robot and implications for avian flight evolution. Bioinspiration and Bioimetics
BOLT: Bipedal Ornithopter for Locomotion Transitioning (Sept. 2011) Bolt is a 13 gram ornithopter with legs for mixed-mode locomotion. In running modes, wings provide passive stability. With wing assisted running, BOLT can run at 2.5 m/sec while maintaining ground contact. IROS 2011 .
OctoRoACH:Dual Drive MilliRobot (Sept. 2011) The OctoRoACH robot has a mass of less than 30 grams, and includes the ImageProc CPU with gyro, accelerometer, radio and camera, is capable of locomotion in rough surfaces. Robot designed by A. Pullin.
Flight Control for Target Seeking by 13 gram Ornithopter (Sept. 2011) We demonstrate autonomous flight control of 13 gram ornithopter capable of flying toward a target without any remote assistance. For this demonstration, we have developed a closed-loop attitude regulator for the ornithopter using onboard sensing and computational resources. Movie IROS 2011 .
GSA Adhesive Material Limits (Aug. 2011) HDPE and PP fibrillar arrays have shear adhesion stress (0.3 MPa) sufficient to deform the fibers. Hence the fiber material strength is a limit to greater adhesion strength. Surprisingly, the GSA maintained 54% of original stress in spite or marked deformation over 10,000 cycles. Shear Adhesion Strength of Thermoplastic Gecko-Inspired Synthetic Adhesive Exceeds Material Limits, Langmuir, 2011
MEDIC Millirobot with belly climbing (May 2011) The Medic robot has a mass of 5.5 grams, and is capable of positioning within 1 mm using static SMA drive. The robot includes camera and wireless. (Kohut et al., ICRA 2011.)
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).
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Current Research Projects

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.

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

Ornithopter Project

Bioinspired sensors and control strategies are being developed for coordinated flight of multiple ornithopters.

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.

Past Research Projects

Millirobot Rapid Prototyping We are developing a low cost (<$1000)) desktop factory which will allow users to build millirobots from a kit of components.		Micromechanical Flying Insect The goal of this project is to develop an autonomous 0.1 gram flying robot using insect-inspired wing kinematics.
Other Past Research Projects

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