Keynote
In person
LeadersGoldDiscovery

Towards “Robotic Field Ants”, physically intelligent bio-inspired robotic workers

  • Date
    9 July 2026
    Timeframe
    14:00 - 14:30
    Duration
    30 minutes
    • Days
      Hours
      Min
      Sec

    Recent miniature robots demonstrate impressive mobility, but most are designed to respect environmental constraints rather than to act on and modify them. At the insect scale in particular, existing robots largely lack the ability to manipulate objects, transport materials, or physically intervene in their surroundings. This limitation is especially acute for inspection and maintenance tasks, where failures often originate in confined or cluttered environments that are inaccessible to traditional (palm-scale or larger) robots and require localized mechanical action rather than remote observation alone. 

    To address this critical gap, we present a new class of minimally tethered physically intelligent insect-scale quadrupeds, actively adapting its morphology to enable movement, manipulation, and maintenance, much like an insect interacting with its environment. Our robots can modulate actuation to reconfigure its body, can grasp and transport objects, unscrew fasteners, seal leaks, clear blockages, restore flow, and place components, while also enhancing situational awareness by adapting its sensing geometry. By unifying locomotion, manipulation, intervention, and sensing in a single insect-scale system, this research establishes a new class of robotic field ants—general-purpose miniature workers that embrace the environment.

     

    Are you sure you want to remove this speaker?