Principal Investigator YuFeng (Kevin) Chen
Project Website https://www.rle.mit.edu/smrl/
Project Start Date January 2020
The aim of the Soft and Micro Robotics Laboratory is to develop micro-scale robotic systems that can demonstrate insect-like locomotive capabilities in aerial, aquatic, and terrestrial environments. To design highly agile, multifunctional, and robust micro-scale robots, we work on (1) develop high bandwidth and robust soft actuators and active materials for locomotion and manipulation, (2) investigate and apply physical phenomena (surface tension, fluid-structure interaction, friction, electrostatics) at the millimeter scale in designing multifunctional robots, and (3) develop design and fabrication tools suitable for rapid prototyping of hybrid soft-rigid robots. We envision our work will find applications such as inspection, surgical robots, and environmental monitoring.