4 accepted papers
In recent years, the field of legged robotics has seen growing interest in enhancing the capabilities of these robots through the integration of articulated robotic arms. However, achieving successful loco-manipulation, especially involving interaction with heavy objects, is far from straightforward…
Recent studies on quadruped robots have focused on either locomotion or mobile manipulation using a robotic arm. However, legged robots can manipulate large objects using non-prehensile manipulation primitives, such as planar pushing, to drive the object to the desired location. This paper presents…
We present the shape-memory alloy (SMA) robotic traveling insect (SMARTI), a 60-mg crawling microrobot that is driven by two 6-mg high-frequency SMA bending actuators and whose two-module configuration enables controlled differential steering and path following. During operation, the two modules are
We present the design, fabrication and experimental testing of SMALLBug, a 30-mg crawling microrobot that is 13 mm in length and can locomote at actuation frequencies of up to 20 Hz. The robot is driven by an electrically-powered 6-mg bending actuator that is composed of a thin shape-memory alloy (S