Srinath's Research page

Research

Micromechanical Flying Insect

I fly therefore I am

My focus of interest is robotics in general and the design and control of mechanical structures inspired by biomimetic principles in particular. A good description of biomimetics taken from wikipedia is

Biomimetics approaches nature with the methods of modern science to study materials and solutions evolved during millions of years of evolution. The result is technology transfer of the highly optimized solutions represented in natural systems.

I am currently working on the MFI (Micromechanical Flying Insect) project with Prof. Ron Fearing. Its a multicultural event with the EECS, Integrated Biology, Mechanical Engineering and Material Sciences department participating. The goal of the project from the offical page is the following:

We propose to develop a micromechanical flying insect (MFI), a 10-25 mm (wingtip-to-wingtip) device eventually capable of sustained autonomous flight. The goal of the MFI project is to use biomimetic principles to capture some of the exceptional flight performance achieved by true flies.

Publications

[to appear] Flexure design rules for Carbon Fiber Microrobotic Mechanisms S. Avadhanula and R.S. Fearing IEEE Int. Conf. on Robots and Automation 2005, Barcelona, Spain
[to appear] Biomimetic Underwater Microrobotic Boxfish with Oscillating Fin Propulsion: System Design and Force Measurement X. Deng and S. Avadhanula IEEE Int. Conf. on Robots and Automation 2005, Barcelona, Spain
[to appear] Characterization of the Micromechanical Flying Insect by Optical Position Sensing E. Steltz, R.J. Wood, S. Avadhanula and R.S. Fearing IEEE Int. Conf. on Robots and Automation 2005, Barcelona, Spain
Lift Force Improvements for the Micromechanical Flying Insect S. Avadhanula, R.J. Wood, E. Steltz, J. Yan and R.S. Fearing IEEE Int. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Oct 28-30, 2003, Las Vegas NV.
Microrobotics using Composite Materials: the Micromechanical Flying Insect Thorax R.J. Wood, S. Avadhanula, and R.S. Fearing IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation 2003, Taipei, Taiwan.
Wing transmission for a micromechanical flying insect J. Yan, S. Avadhanula, J. Birch, M.H. Dickinson, M. Sitti, T. Su, and R.S. Fearing Journal of Micromechatronics, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 221-238, 2002.
Thorax Design and Wing Control for a Micromechanical Flying Insect J. Yan, S. Avadhanula, M. Sitti, R. J. Wood, and R.S. Fearing Proc. of the 39th Annual Allerton Conf. on Communication, Control, and Computing, Monticello, IL, Oct 3-5, 2001.
Dynamically Tuned Design of the MFI Thorax S. Avadhanula, R.J. Wood, D. Campolo, R.S. Fearing IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation, Washington, DC May 11-15, 2002.
The Micromechanical Flying Insect J. Yan, S. Avadhanula, J. Birch, M. Dickinson, M. Menon, E. Park, T. Sands, S. Sane, M. Sitti, T. Su, R.J. Wood, and R.S. Fearing Video presentation: IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation, Washington, DC May 11-15, 2002. Best Video Award Winner
Towards Flapping Wing Control for a Micromechanical Flying Insect J. Yan, R.J. Wood, S. Avadhanula, M. Sitti, R.S. Fearing IEEE Int. Conf. Robotics and Automation, pp. 3901-3908, Seoul Korea, May 21-26, 2001.