16-845 Insects and Robots

12 units, Carnegie Mellon University

This course will cover all facets of modeling, design, fabrication, and analysis of robots operating on the insect scale, with a microrobotics perspective. Insects can perform different tasks, such as manipulation or locomotion, with their small scale bodies varying from 200m to 16cm length. Similarly, we can define a microrobotic system as an autonomous or semiautonomous device with features on the micron scale or that make use of micronscale physics for mobility or manipulation of objects. Due to their small size scales, microrobots will encounter difficulties unlike their macroscale counterparts, in terms of fabrication and autonomy. In this projectbased course, our aim will be on learning the physics of scaling, fabrication paradigms, actuation and sensing strategies, with numerous case studies, and to build an insectinspired robotic system. We will also discuss multiple applications such as surgical robotics, mobile microrobots, multiagent systems, and micronano manipulation.

Prerequisites: none listed

Courseweave needs JavaScript to show sections, workloads and planning tools.