Kristofer S.J. Pister (Advisor)

This project focuses on developing a new generation of millimeter scale MEMS-based autonomous walking robots with self-righting capability. These robots are based on electrostatic actuators driving planar silicon linkages, all fabricated in the device layer of a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer. By using electrostatic actuation, these legs have the advantage of being low power compared to other microrobot leg designs. This is key to granting the robot autonomy through low-power energy harvesting. The ultimate goal will be to join these silicon legs with a CMOS brain, battery power, a high...

Generating low-level robot controllers often requires manual parameters tuning and significant system knowledge, which can result in long design times for highly specialized controllers. Moreover, with micro-robots the dynamics change on each design iteration and there is little experimental time to tune controllers. To address the problem of rapidly generating low-level controllers without domain knowledge, we propose using model-based reinforcement learning (MBRL) trained on few minutes of automatically generated data. Initial results showed the capabilities of MBRL on a Crazyflie...

We are developing a mm-square low-power wireless ADC that will detect and transmit microvolt signals, which is promising for precision measurements in biomedical applications, automotive, and mobiles. This project specifically aims to be used for a concurrent TMS-EEG-fMRI system, a highly desirable temporal and spatial imaging method to unveil the mystery of brain circuits. The precision ADC will make it possible to acquire EEG signals down to 10µV while wireless transmission will avoid safety heating issues by current induced in wired-loop under time-varying magnetic field in MRI....

Autonomous swimming microrobots for biomedical applications and distributed sensing require locally controllable swimming mechanisms. This project aims to develop underwater, rotary electrostatic inchworm motors for artificial flagella. Our proposed design uses gap closing actuators with an angle arm design, similar to existing inchworm motors, to drive a central rotor, all fabricated with an SOI process. An artificial flagella is attached the rotor, converting the rotational motion into propulsion. Major challenges include efficient operation of electrostatic motors underwater and...