Actuator reduction is especially important for aerial robots, where minimizing mass and conserving power is critical. Bistable mechanisms have been used to augment actuators by speeding up actuation time or […]
Free-flying robotic systems (such as multibody aerial and space vehicles) evolve on high-dimensional non-Euclidean manifolds subject to nonlinear, underactuated dynamics. Because such systems can rely only on the severely limited […]
Task and path planning algorithms for robots in the presence of flows confront a fundamental dichotomy between the continuous and the discrete: task planning algorithms discretize the world and their […]
Plasmonic nanostructure based on silver and gold that produces LSPR to withstand ultrahigh temperatures without damage remains a great challenge for future ultra-compact integrated circuits, and high-power enabled photonic devices. […]
Communication is fundamental to successful coordination in teams of robots. Indeed, the promise that robot teams can complete tasks faster and more efficiently than any single agent depends on their […]
Recent progress in diverse disciplines such as soft matter physics, nanoparticle synthesis, nanomedicine, and microbiology has enabled rich opportunities for translation of small-scale robots into medical applications. These robotic systems […]
Humans have frequently looked to natural phenomena to inspire the design of art, structures, and mechanisms. However, there are as many different ways to learn from nature as there are […]
Aerial robotics have become ubiquitous, but (like most robots) they still struggle to operate at high speed in unstructured, cramped environments. By considering a vehicle's mechanical design simultaneously with the […]
Recent years have witnessed tremendous growth in the capabilities of legged robots, with quadrupeds and humanoids demonstrating athletic behaviors that even five years ago were out of reach. Likewise, actively […]
Despite considerable advancements in recent years, legged robots still fall short in terms of agility when compared to their animal counterparts. This thesis takes a two pronged approach to creating […]
