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Challenges and opportunities of autonomous insect-scale robots

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  • Date
    31 March 2026
    Timeframe
    15:00 - 16:00 CEST
    Duration
    60 minutes

      Flapping-wing flight at the insect scale is incredibly challenging. Insect muscles not only power flight but also absorb in-flight collisional impact, making these tiny flyers simultaneously agile and robust. In contrast, existing aerial robots have not demonstrated these properties. Rigid robots are fragile against collisions, while soft-driven systems suffer limited speed, precision, and controllability.

      This talk presents an effort to develop a new class of bio-inspired micro-flyers powered by high-bandwidth soft actuators and equipped with rigid appendages. It introduces the first heavier-than-air aerial robot powered by soft artificial muscles, demonstrating a 1000-second hovering flight and acrobatic maneuvers such as body saccade and continuous somersault. It then describes a learning-based flight controller that achieves insect-level flight agility and robustness, opening opportunities for future applications such as search-and-rescue and assisted agriculture. The presentation also covers recent progress in incorporating onboard sensors, electronics, and batteries.

       

      Session Objectives:

      By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

      • Understand technical challenges in building insect-scale robotic systems.
      • Identify applications opportunities.
      • Explore how an AI-based algorithm can enhance robot performance.

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