Event
CDS Lecture: Sarah Bergbreiter, "Challenges for Autonomous Mobile Microrobots"
Monday, March 3, 2008
2:00 p.m.
1146 AV Williams Building
Pam White
301 405 6602
pwhite@umd.edu
Control and Dynamical Systems Invited Lecture Series
Challenges for Autonomous Mobile Microrobots
Monday, March 3, 2008
2:00 p.m.
1146 A.V. Williams Bldg
University of Maryland
Sarah Bergbreiter
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Institute for Systems Research
University of Maryland
Abstract
Wireless sensor networks hold great promise for advances in search and surveillance, industrial automation, and discovering more about the world around us. Integrating mobile sensors into these networks in the form of autonomous robots or vehicles offers the ability to detect important events at higher resolution or with more capable sensors, as well as an ability to react to these events. As the size of sensors shrink to sub-millimeter scales, an important and interesting research challenge remains to shrink the size of the robots carrying these sensors.
A number of challenges exist before making these autonomous mobile microrobots a reality. First, millimeter-sized robots need to be able to move throughout their environment in an effective and efficient manner. These robots also need high force density motors and simple mechanisms to accomplish their locomotion goals. Power is another enormous challenge for tiny robots - can power supplies be designed for high efficiency and to meet the voltage and current requirements of controllers, actuators, and sensors? Integrating all of these components together along with sensing, control, and possibly even communication elements provides the final challenge for autonomous mobile microrobots. Each of these challenges will be discussed in the context of my previous work in autonomous jumping microrobots and mobile sensor networks along with future work I intend to pursue at Maryland
Wireless sensor networks hold great promise for advances in search and surveillance, industrial automation, and discovering more about the world around us. Integrating mobile sensors into these networks in the form of autonomous robots or vehicles offers the ability to detect important events at higher resolution or with more capable sensors, as well as an ability to react to these events. As the size of sensors shrink to sub-millimeter scales, an important and interesting research challenge remains to shrink the size of the robots carrying these sensors.
A number of challenges exist before making these autonomous mobile microrobots a reality. First, millimeter-sized robots need to be able to move throughout their environment in an effective and efficient manner. These robots also need high force density motors and simple mechanisms to accomplish their locomotion goals. Power is another enormous challenge for tiny robots - can power supplies be designed for high efficiency and to meet the voltage and current requirements of controllers, actuators, and sensors? Integrating all of these components together along with sensing, control, and possibly even communication elements provides the final challenge for autonomous mobile microrobots. Each of these challenges will be discussed in the context of my previous work in autonomous jumping microrobots and mobile sensor networks along with future work I intend to pursue at Maryland.
