7 accepted papers
Planning locomotion trajectories for legged microrobots is challenging because of their complex morphology, high frequency passive dynamics, and discontinuous contact interactions with their environment. Consequently, such research is often driven by time-consuming experimental methods. As an altern…
We present a power and control autonomous, insect-scale legged robot the Harvard Ambulatory MicroRobot with RF communication (HAMR-F). At only 2.8 g and 4.5 cm in length, HAMR-F is capable of locomotion at speeds up to 17.2 cm/s (3.8 body lengths per second) with an onboard battery. Two microcontrol
This paper develops a custom motion capture system that uses vision-based methods to rapidly and accurately track the body and leg position/orientation of a 1.43g legged microrobot, the Harvard Ambulatory MicroRobot (HAMR). Two new generalized metrics for quantifying locomotion performance are defin…
This paper presents an off-board trajectory controller for a range of stride frequencies (2-45 Hz) that enables zero-radius turns and holonomic control on one of the smallest and fastest legged robots, the Harvard Ambulatory MicroRobot (HAMR). An experimental model is used as the basis for control t…
We present an off-board phase estimator and controller for leg position near the resonance of the Harvard Ambulatory MicroRobot's (HAMR) two degree-of-freedom transmission. This control system is a first step towards leveraging the significant increase in stride length at transmission resonance for…
Full autonomy remains a challenge for miniature robotic platforms due to mass and size requirements of on-board power and control electronics. This paper presents a solution to these challenges with a 2.3g autonomous legged robot. An off-the-shelf optical mouse sensor is adapted for use on the Harva…
This paper presents a non-linear, dynamic model of the flexure-based transmission in the Harvard Ambulatory Microrobot (HAMR). The model is derived from first principles and has led to a more comprehensive understanding of the components in this transmission. In particular, an empirical model of the…