CRII: FRR: Latch-mediation as a Pathway for Control in Small, Fast Jumping Microrobots

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). The impressive leaps of jumping microrobots, and the insects that inspire them, are a result of small springs. The springs store large amounts of energy for even bigger jumps. A microrobot the same size as an insect that can jump to heights over ten times its own body length has the potential to explore unknown and changing environments, such as subterranean caves, disaster rubble, or even the surface of other planets.This project will create jumping microrobots that will reach new levels of control and autonomy. This work will create a mathematical and experimental framework that uncovers how energy is released by a latch. This framework will connect features of robot design with control to push the boundaries of autonomy in jumping microrobots. The huge leaps in small robots make this project an excellent candidate for outreach activities in robotics research. Undergraduate researchers will be recruited through a project portal at the University at Buffalo that provides equitable access to research opportunities to a diverse student population across the university. The research plan in this project works toward the principled design of jumping microrobots with controllable jump heights, a part of the latch-mediated spring actuation (LaMSA) framework. In this framework, springs are loaded but blocked by a latch, and the jump occurs when the latch is removed. Control in jumping robots has largely been through spring loaded, but this project focuses on understanding the dynamics of unlatching as a new axis of control in jumping microrobots. This is particularly important for the incredibly fast time scales of spring actuation. First, a thorough understanding of the dynamics of unlatching will be elucidated through mathematical and physical models. A new understanding of the dynamics of unlatching will become a pathway for control in jumping microrobots, to either produce the same, stereotyped jumping behavior with different initial conditions, or variable behavior with the same initial conditions. These research efforts will be a pathway toward a general understanding of dynamics and control of unlatching, and lead to a principled framework for the design and control of jumping microrobots. This project is supported by the cross-directorate Foundational Research in Robotics program, jointly managed and funded by the Directorates for Engineering (ENG) and Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.