The proposed research is aimed at developing a new class of biologically inspired robots that exhibit much greater robustness than today's robots for performing in unstructured environments. This new class of robots will be substantially more compliant and stable than current robots, and will take advantage of new developments in materials, fabrication technologies, sensors and actuators. Applications will include autonomous or semi-autonomous tasks such as reconnaissance and de-mining for small, insect-like robots and human interaction tasks at a larger scale. The research involves a close collaboration among robotics and physiology researchers at Stanford, U.C. Berkeley, Harvard and Johns Hopkins Universities.

The work has five main components:

1. We will investigate the mechanisms by which lower animals, particularly insects, achieve exceptional physical robustness and an ability to accomplish basic tasks such as locomotion despite large perturbations in the environment. Studies of insect kinematics, dynamics, structural elasticity, muscle activitation and sensing will provide insights for the design and control of small robots, sensors and actuators. Insects are ideal for these studies because of their comparatively simple motor control systems.
2. The passive mechanical properties and 'preflexes' that are evident in insects must be augmented with adaptive strategies if robots are to cope with a range of unstructured environments and with multiple tasks. We will therefore investigate the motor control and adaptation strategies that higher animals, particularly humans, use to cope with unexpected variations in tasks and the environment. We will determine how impedance is specified and varied in response to changing task requirements.
3. The insights obtained from the investigations of passive and 'preflex' behavior in insects and active adaptation in humans will be tested in the control of small and large robots. Tasks will include locomotion and manipulation of awkward and delicate loads, with applications to retrieving wreckage from the ocean floor, de-mining and handling human bodies. The investigations will begin using robots that employ mostly off-the-shelf technology and will progress to robots that take advantage of new materials, fabrication, sensing, and actuation technologies as they become available during the project.
4. We will take advantage of new developments in shape deposition manufacturing (SDM) to develop biomimetic robot structures with complex three-dimensional geometry, tailored compliance and damping properties, and embedded sensors and actuators. The structures will overcome many of the limitations present in today's robots assembled from metal parts and off-the-shelf components. We will begin with individual modules, such as leg or finger joints with built-in actuation and sensing, and progress to entire limbs, and robots composed of a mix of SDM and conventionally manufactured parts.
5. The development of biomimetic robot structures is critically dependent on better actuation and sensing technology. We will therefore conduct research on embeddable actuators and sensors especially suited for biomimetic robots at small and large scales.