Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Tentative title:
Toward Autonomy in Microrobots
Abstract:
Research toward small, autonomous, and mobile robots is inspired by both the insects we see around us and numerous applications, from inspection of jet engines and civil infrastructure to medical procedures. When comparing existing robots at small scales with their biological counterparts, the capability for autonomous operation is a glaring contrast. This talk will describe the state of the art in robotics at sub-gram scales along with the progress toward autonomy in power, mobility, and control at these small sizes.
Biography:
Sarah Bergbreiter joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in the fall of 2018 after ten years at the University of Maryland, College Park. She received her B.S.E. degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University in 1999. After a short introduction to the challenges of sensor networks at a small startup company, she received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley in 2004 and 2007 with a focus on microrobotics. Prof. Bergbreiter received the DARPA Young Faculty Award in 2008, the NSF CAREER Award in 2011, and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) Award in 2013 for her research on engineering robotic systems down to sub-millimeter size scales. She has received several Best Paper awards at conferences like ICRA, IROS, and Hilton Head Workshop. She currently serves on DARPA’s Microsystems Exploratory Council and as an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Robotics.