{"id":683,"date":"2022-05-31T18:13:30","date_gmt":"2022-05-31T18:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/airlab\/?page_id=683"},"modified":"2022-12-05T16:28:57","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T16:28:57","slug":"research","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/airlab\/research\/","title":{"rendered":"Research"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sensing and Autonomy<\/h3>\t\t\t

We are creating scale-appropriate sensing, control, and autonomy systems for insect robots.<\/p>\n

Key challenge:<\/strong> extreme constraints on size, speed, weight, and power (SSWaP) prohibit many approaches that have been successful on larger robots.<\/p>\n

Recent articles<\/em>
\n\u2022 Sensor suite for gnat robots: Fuller, et al., Science Robotics <\/em>2022. [see publications page for link]
\n\u2022 Extremely low-power visual flight control for corridor navigation: Yu et al., Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) <\/em>2022.
\n\u2022 Flight-weight state estimator: Talwekar, et al., Int. Conf. Robotics & Automation (ICRA) <\/em>2022\u00a0 [pdf<\/a>]
\n\u2022 Custom chip for ultra-low power visual odometry. Shukla, et al., Trans. VLSI <\/em>2022.
\n\u2022 Flight-weight pinhole camera: Balasubramanian, et al., BIOROB<\/em> 2018 [pdf<\/a>]<\/p>\n

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Design and Fabrication<\/h3>\t\t\t

We are investigating how to design and build insect-sized robots to expand their capabilities and enable mass manufacture.<\/p>\n

Key challenge: <\/strong>physical scaling laws dictate fundamentally different actuation technology, such as piezo actuation and flapping wings vs. electromagnetic motor and rotor.<\/p>\n

Recent articles<\/em>
\n\u2022 Robofly design: Chukewad et al., Trans. Robot <\/em>2021. [Link<\/a> <\/strong>| pdf<\/strong><\/a>]
\n\u2022 First 6-DOF Robofly control: Chukewad et al., Robotics and Automation Letters<\/em> 2021. [pdf<\/strong><\/a>] [video<\/a><\/strong>]
\n\u2022 Electrohydrodynamic thrust for insect-sized aerial robots: Hari Prasad et al., PLoS One <\/em>2020. [link<\/a>]
\n\u2022 Automatic Robofly trimming system. Dhingra et al., Robotics and Automation Letters<\/em> 2019. [pdf<\/strong><\/a>] [video<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p>\n

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Control and Power<\/h3>\t\t\t

We are investigating how to precisely control the signals for the actuators of an insect robot. We are also investigating how insect robots will power themselves with energy collected from the environment.<\/p>\n

K<\/strong>ey challenges:<\/strong> Insect robot actuators are largely electrostatic and therefore high-voltage. Manually exchanging or recharging batteries on teams of insect-sized robots is impractical.<\/p>\n

Recent articles<\/em>
\n\u2022 A flight sensing system for robots as they scale down to gnat size: Fuller, Yu, and Talwekar, Science Robotics<\/em> 2022. [download manuscript on our publications page<\/a>]
\n\u2022 High-voltage driver with precise amplitude control: James et al., Int. Conf. Robotics and Automation (ICRA)<\/em> 2021. [pdf<\/a><\/strong>]
\n\u2022 Scaling physics favor solar power in small drones. Elkunchwar et al., Int. Conf. Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) <\/em>2021. [pdf<\/strong><\/a>]
\n\u2022 First wireless liftoff of a robotic fly: James et al., Int. Conf. Robotics and Automation (ICRA) <\/em>2018. [pdf<\/strong><\/a>] [video<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p>\n

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Hybrid Robot-Biology Systems<\/h3>\t\t\t

We are investigating how to take advantage of insects’ superior capabilities to supplement synthetic systems. These include odor sensing or their robust locomotion capabilities.<\/p>\n

Key challenge:<\/strong> interconnections between biological and synthetic systems.<\/p>\n

Recent articles<\/em>
\n\u2022 Drone plume source seeking using an insect antenna and fins to steer into the wind: Anderson et al., Bioinspiration & Biomimetics<\/em> 2020. [pdf<\/a>]
\n\u2022 Wireless steerable vision system backpack for insects: Iyer et al., Science Robotics <\/em>2020. [link<\/strong><\/a>]
\n\u2022 Internet-of-things nodes flying on insects: Iyer et al., ACM Mobicom <\/em>2019. [pdf<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p>\n

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We are creating scale-appropriate sensing, control, and autonomy systems for insect robots. Key challenge: extreme constraints on size, speed, weight, and power (SSWaP) prohibit many approaches that have been successful on larger robots. Recent articles \u2022 Sensor suite for gnat robots: Fuller, et al., Science Robotics 2022. [see publications page for link] \u2022 Extremely low-power […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/airlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/683"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/airlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/airlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/airlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/airlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/airlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":758,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/airlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/683\/revisions\/758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/airlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}