Dynamic change of the surface area and topology of elastomers is used as a general, environmentally friendly approach for effectively detaching micro- and macro-fouling organisms adhered on the elastomer surfaces. Deformation of elastomer surfaces under electrical or pneumatic actuation can debond various biofilms and barnacles. The bio-inspired dynamic surfaces can be fabricated over large are...

We report the design of a monolithic piezoelectrically actuated microelectromechanical tunable vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). The main advantages of piezoelectric actuation compared with conventional capacitive techniques are improved wavelength control, reduced external and tilt losses, and lower power supply voltages. The details of the piezoelectric actuation scheme for a 98...

Complex behaviors of flying insects require interactions among sensory-neural systems, wing actuation biomechanics, and flapping-wing aerodynamics. Here, we review our recent progress in understanding these layers for maneuvering and stabilization flight of fruit flies. Our approach combines kinematic data from flying insects and aerodynamic simulations to distill reduced-order mathematical mod...

Untethered, controllable, mobile microrobots have been proposed for numerous applications, ranging from micro-manipulation, in vitro tasks (e.g., operation of microscale biological substances) to in vivo applications (e.g., targeted drug delivery; brachytherapy; hyperthermia, etc.), due to their small-scale dimensions and accessibility to tiny and complex environments. Researchers have used dif...

RF MEMS switches can be used to achieve reconfigurability of various RF systems and in particularly for miniaturized antenna structures. In case of micro machined antennas, which involve low voltage signals, RF MEMS switches with low actuation voltage are required for achieving reconfigurability. The capacitive shunt switch derives its switching property from the significant difference of its c...

Servo-actuation system is one of the key executing subsystems of the flight control system of an aircraft. With the development of fly-by-wire control systems, redundant servo-actuation systems have been extensively applied. A servo-actuation system has a long life and high reliability, which results in the lack of failure information. In the mean time, available data is insufficient and imprec...

External actuation in self-reconfigurable modular robots promises to allow modules to shrink down in size. Synchronous external motions promise to allow fast convergence and assembly times. XBot is a modular system that uses synchronous external actuation, but has a limited range of reachable configurations stemming from a single motion primitive of a module rotating about another. This paper p...

This paper presents bio-mimetic cilia resonated in a microfluidic device for fluid transport and bio-compatible mixing. High aspect ratio silicone cilia structures were successfully fabricated and assembled in a fluidic device by the recently developed under-water fabrication method. The cilia in a fluid were resonated by piezoinduced actuation. As an application of the cilia, a fluorophoric av...

A novel bio-magnetomechanical microtissue system is described for magnetic actuation of arrays of 3D microtissues using microcantilevers. This system enables both in situ measurements of fundamental mechanical properties of engineered tissue, such as contractility and stiffness, as well as dynamic stimulation of the microtissues. Using this system, cell and extracellular matrix contributions to...

This paper addresses computer control under time-varying sampling period and delayed actuation. The proposed approach uses time-varying observers and state feedback controllers designed by means of linear matrix inequalities (LMI) and quadratic Lyapunov functions. The use of non-stationary Kalman filters is also discussed. A separation principle applies in some cases. A DC motor control setup s...