Bio-inspired Robots

Passive Aerial Righting and Safe Landing of a Small Jumping Robot

• Small in scale (body length of ~20 mm) and lightweight (around 100 mg)

• Rapid takeoff at a speed of 3 m/s with a maximum jumping height of 22 times its size

• The aerodynamic torque, induced by drag flaps, can reduce the body's angular velocity by 70% compared to that of an uncontrolled robot

• The robot's mid-air posture can be passively controlled through an enhanced stable equilibrium.

Insect-Scale Terrestrial Robot Capable of Environmental Monitoring

• Quadruped crawling mechanism to improve the payload capacity for the power and sensing autonomy

• The robot, with a length of 4.2 cm, is capable of navigation and real-time environmental monitoring using multiple sensors with an onboard battery

• The robot with simple design modifications allowing for improved load-bearing capacity with minimal weight increase (2.5 times the stiffness for a weight increase of 50 mg)

• The robot can traverse a confined space (height of 4 cm and width of 7 cm) and monitor the environment through multiple sensors (camera, microphone, and ToF), while operating with all functions for 12 min