Robotics and Automation Society [RA-24]

6:30 PM, Monday, 20 February

Bioinspired Hybrid Locomotion For Miniature Robotics

Dr. Mirko Kovac, Katie Hoffman, Kevin Ma

Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory, http://micro.seas.harvard.edu/

PLEASE NOTE DIFFERENT MEETING LOCATION THIS MONTH: Harvard Microrobotics Lab, 60 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02140

Dr. Mirko Kovac: Nature offers an almost limitless quantity of design solutions that allow small animals to move in natural terrains. Although animals share only a subset of their design requirements with robots, several of the design principles employed by animals can be used in robotics as well to allow them to improve their locomotion capabilities. In this talk, Dr. Kovac will give an overview of his PhD work at the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at EPFL on jumping and gliding miniature robots. Further, I will introduce our work at the Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory where we work towards the implementation of butterfly inspired gliding and soaring flight to our robotic flapping wing microrobots.

Katie Hoffman (Centipede Millirobot): Due to their ability to navigate a variety of terrains at high speeds, arthropods have been used as inspiration for legged millirobots. Many robots at this scale are modeled after cockroaches, with six legs and rigid bodies; however, the diversity of body morphologies found in nature leaves unanswered questions about the optimal number of legs for robustness and speed and how passive body flexibility can enhance locomotion on both flat and rough terrain. A segmented, many-legged centipede-inspired millirobot with a compliant body provides the perfect platform to answer these questions. Katie Hoffman will present the design, modeling, fabrication, and experimental results of a 20-legged centipede-inspired millirobot being used to understand myriapod locomotion.

Kevin Ma: Recent advances in the understanding of biological flight have inspired roboticists to create flapping-wing vehicles on the scale of insects. A coordinated effort toward achieving this goal is found in the collaborative Robobees project, being conducted at Harvard University. The project covers all aspects of the system, from the flight apparatus and power systems to the electronic nervous system for sensing and decision-making. The goal of the project is to create a coordinated swarm of small, insect-scale robots, for applications in distributed sensing, search and rescue operations, and assisted agriculture (robotic pollination). In this talk, Kevin will cover some of the challenges in building small flying devices and highlight the innovations that have been made to enable the mechanical design and fabrication of these tiny robots.

Dr. Mirko Kovac is Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory as part of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University in Cambridge, USA. He obtained his PhD with the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems under the supervision of Prof. Dario Floreano at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL). He received his M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) in 2005 with his Master Thesis carried out at University of California in Berkeley, USA. During his studies he was research associate with RIETER Automotive Switzerland, the WARTSILA Diesel Technology Division in Switzerland, and CISERV in Singapore. He has presented his work at several international conferences and in journals and has supervised more than 25 B.A./M.S. level student projects, one of which received the 2008 Foundation Annaheim prize for the best student project. In 2009 he won the JTCF Novel Technology best paper award at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS’2009) and the 2009 runner up best poster award at the research day at EPFL. His research interest is the conception and design of novel locomotion and control methods for mobile robots and their analogy in biological systems. Webpage: http://kovac.me

Katie Hoffman is a Ph.D. candidate in the Microrobotics Lab at the Harvard University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. She obtained her undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from Bucknell University in 2008 and her masters degree in engineering sciences from Harvard University in 2010. Her current research interests include mechanical design, fabrication, and modeling of biologically-inspired ambulatory millirobots.

Kevin Ma is a graduate student researcher in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. He works on the aeromechanical design of the robotic bee, as a member of the NSF-funded Robobees project and the Harvard Microrobotics Lab. Prior to Harvard, he obtained his B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 2010. His research interests include mechanical design, microfabrication, and bio-inspired robotic locomotion.

Meeting will be held at Harvard Microrobotics Lab, 60 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02140 (Please note the irregular date and venue)

Doors Open: 6:00 PM; Presentation starts: 6:30 PM

Please see the map at the bottom of the Harvard Microrobotics Laboratory web page: http://micro.seas.harvard.edu/

or a Google map for the HMRL address: maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&q=60+oxford+street+cambridge+ma&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=60+Oxford+St,+Cambridge,+Middlesex,+Massachusetts+02138&gl=us&ei=
aUCrTNWfLMH58AbE6Ky4Bw&ved=0CBQQ8gEwAA&z=16

After the meeting, there will be a no-host dinner with the speakers at the Cambridge Commons restaurant, 1667 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, http://www.cambridgecommonrestaurant.com/; to see the menu please go to http://www.cambridgecommonrestaurant.com/printmenu.asp

This and other RAS meetings are open to the general public. For more information about the RAS Boston Chapter, contact Chapter Chair Peter Meyer at 617-244-5049 or p.j.meyer@ieee.org or visit http://www.robotics-boston.org/

Boston and New Hampshire Robotics and Automation Society

Thursday, 6:00 PM, 19 January - Meeting Cancelled

A Tour Of Makeit Labs, Nashua, NH

Joseph Schlesinger (Founder), MakeIt Labs,
http://www.makeitlabs.com/, info@makeitlabs.com, Phone: 603-722-0006

MakeIt Labs is an open-access workshop in Nashua, NH. Members pay a monthly fee to have full access to a 6000 ft2 workshop filled with tools including welders, an industrial laser cutter, electronics testing equipment, auto lift, glass kilns and more, “Everything to Build Anything”. MakeIt Labs is also a community of people who enjoy making things of all kinds. Its members are engineers, tinkerers, inventors and hobbyists who collaborate, share knowledge and breed enthusiasm for all things hand-on.

The merging of Open Source Software, the Maker Movement and Democratized Manufacturing has led to Open Source Hardware, where drivers, plans and guides to build hardware are being shared freely. This movement has powerful implications for robotics, some of which are already being realized. This talk will discuss the beginnings of open source hardware, current events and trends, what impact it is having on robotics and the possible future implications it has for the field. There will be a demo of an Open Source robot being developed by the speaker.

Joseph Schlesinger is the founder of MakeIt Labs, New Hampshire's first Open-Access Workshop (a.k.ahackerspace) in Nashua, NH. An Electrical and Computer Engineer who likes making things, especially with other people. Joe enjoys diving deep into as many fields as possible. He has hacked together stuff ranging from an aircannon that launched billards over a kilometer to scrapyard electric vehicles and medieval alchemy graffiti runs in the middle of the night. His life-long joy however, is robotics, which he is currently pursuing via his own robotics company.

This meeting is being held at MakeIt Labs, 29 Crown Street, Nashua, NH 03060. Door open: 6:00 PM, Tour starts: 6:30 PM, Dinner: 8:00 PM. This and other RAS meetings are open to the general public. For more information about the RAS Boston Chapter, contact Chapter Chair Peter Meyer at 617-244-5049 or p.j.meyer@ieee.orgor visit http://www.robotics-boston.org/. For more information on the RAS New Hampshire Chapter, contact Chapter Chair Mike Sousa at 603-487-3182 or mdsousa@ieee.org or visit http://ewh.ieee.org/r1/new_hampshire/

Directions to MakeIt Labs: http://www.makeitlabs.com/about/map

From the South: Head north on US-3 into New Hampshire. Take Exit 4 for E Dunstable Rd.After 1.5 miles, turn left onto Main St., go 1.0 mile. Turn right onto Spring St., go 0.1 mile. Take the 2nd right onto E Hollis St., go 0.7 mile. Turn right onto Chase St., go 450 ft. Turn left onto Crown St., MakeIt Labs will be 40 ft further, on the right. According to Google Earth, the driving distance from Boston is about 40 miles and the driving time about 50 min. Please take into account rush-hour delays.

After the tour, at about 8 PM, there will be a no-host dinner at the Common Man Restaurant in Merrimack: 304 Daniel Webster Highway (US-3), Merrimack, NH 03054, tel. 603-429-3463, http://www.thecman.com/restaurants/common-man-merrimack/. From MakeIt Labs, head west on Crown St., go 40 ft. Take the 1st right onto Chase St., go 450 ft. Turn right onto E Hollis St., go 70 ft. Turn left onto C St., go 0.1 mile. Turn left onto Bridge St., go 0.4 mile. Continue on Canal St., go 0.4 mile. Turn right onto Orange St., go 0.2 mile. Take the 3rd right onto Concord St., go 1.8 miles. Continue on US-3 N (Daniel Webster Highway), go 3.6 miles. The restaurant will be on the left.(Driving distance 6.7 miles, driving time 14 min.)