An electro-conjugate fluid (ECF) is a kind of functional fluid, which produces a jet flow (ECF jet) when subjected to high DC voltage. This study introduces the ECF jet to develop a novel inchworm like in-pipe mobile robot which mainly consists of two clamping units (a clamping actuator, an ECF jet generator and an ECF tank) and a propelling unit (a propelling actuator, an ECF jet generator and...

This paper develops and experimentally validates a 3D-printed snake robot prototype. Its structure is designed to allocate limited room for each functional module (including an external power module, battery power module, the wireless control and transmission module and some detective sensors), so as to ensure the snake robot works in different environments. In order to control and track the sn...

This paper is part of the development process of a microsurgical "cooperating" assistant. To evaluate its applicability to augment fine surgical motions, we test precision and operator perception in simple microsurgical scale pick and place motions. Such motions are common in microsurgical procedures(e.g. micro-vascular anastomosis). The experiments test the users' ability to position a common ...

In the framework of our research on biologically inspired microrobotics, we have developed two novel Automatic Flight Control Systems (AFCS): OCTAVE (Optical altitude Control sysTem for Autonomous VEhicles) and OSCAR (Optical Scanning sensor for the Control of Autonomous Robots), both based on insects’ visuomotor control systems. OCTAVE was tested and found to confer on a tethered aerial robot ...

This paper describes hardware and behavior implementation of a miniature robot in size of a match box that simulates the behavior of cockroaches in order to establish a social interaction with them. The robot is equipped with two micro-processors dedicated to hardware processing and behavior generation. The robot can discriminate cockroaches, other robots, environment boundaries and shelters. I...