6 accepted papers
We present a new millimeter-scale bimorph actuator for microrobotic applications, driven by feedforward controlled shape-memory alloy (SMA) wires. The device weighs 10 mg, measures 14 mm in length, and occupies a volume of 4.8 mm3, which makes it the lightest and smallest fully functional SMA-based…
We present model predictive selection (MPS), a new method for selecting the stable closed-loop (CL) equilibrium attitude-error quaternion (AEQ) of an uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) during the execution of high-speed yaw maneuvers. In this approach, we minimize the cost of yawing measured with a perfo…
This paper presents the VLEIBot* (Very Little Eel-Inspired roBot), a 45-mg/23-mm3 microrobotic swimmer that is propelled by a bioinspired anguilliform propulsor. The propulsor is excited by a single 6-mg high-work-density (HWD) microactuator and undulates periodically due to wave propagation phenome…
We present a new unimorph actuator for micro-robotics, which is driven by thin shape-memory alloy (SMA) wires. Using a passive-capillary-alignment technique and existing SMA-microsystem fabrication methods, we developed an actuator that is 7 mm long, has a volume of 0.45 mm3, weighs 0.96 mg, and can…
We present a study of the dynamics and control of a 28-gram quadrotor during the execution of aerobatic maneuvers in the presence of propeller-aerodynamic-coefficient and torque-latency time-variations. First, through a momentum-theory-based analysis of the flow field surrounding the robot during ae…
The dynamics of quadrotors are affected by time-varying torque latency, which can greatly alter the stability robustness and performance of the closed-loop control schemes employed for flight; this issue is especially relevant during the execution of aerobatic maneuvers such as high-speed multi-flip…