NSF Award
2401906
This award supports research that will enable insect-scale legged robots capable of climbing on inverted surfaces and grasping irregularly shaped objects. Unlike spiders or ants that can climb walls, ceilings, and tree trunks while carrying objects such as leaves and seeds, most similar-sized robots are constrained to move on flat, horizontal terrain with limited capability of picking and releasing objects. This project will create insect-like climbing and grasping capabilities in tiny robots through investigation of fundamental principles of adhesion and lubrication, construction of new adhesion mechanisms, design of new climbing gaits and grasping modalities, and formulation of control methods for these tasks. This research will provide economic and societal benefits through potential applications such as inspection of turbine engines and collective debris removal from pipelines and other cluttered spaces. In addition, active muscle-like adhesion devices developed in this work may find applications in wearable haptic devices or small-scale manipulation systems. This project has broader impacts in the education and training of graduate and undergraduate students. The team of researchers will inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers through the creation of outreach programs involving interactive presentations and robot exhibitions at local museums, hosting students from underrepresented minority communities, developing educational multimedia materials, and organizing laboratory tours for K-12 students. <br/><br/>The goal of this project is to achieve reliable and robust climbing and object grasping in insect-scale robots through studying the fluidic interfacial forces at the millimeter-to-centimeter scale. The project will investigate a new adhesion strategy where capillary effects generate large normal forces and lubrication effects reduce friction. This design relaxes the friction cone constraint and further allows the robot to slide along a surface while attached. This approach aims to substantially improve climbing stability and grasping robustness. This work focuses on enabling new microrobotic capabilities through investigating the following three directions: (1) develop analytical models of adhesion and lubrication for microrobotic climbing and grasping; (2) enable inverted and vertical climbing with feedback control; and (3) demonstrate grasping and transport of irregular objects. The outcome of this study will result in an insect-scale quadrupedal robot that can climb on inverted surfaces for over 10 meters. The robot will also demonstrate grasping, in-gripper rotation, and release of irregular objects through the use of a compliant gripper that leverages capillary forces.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
