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Robotics
Making fossils move to build better robots
Aja Carter, a Ph.D. candidate in paleontology, builds robots based on fossilized animals that crawled out of the sea about 300 million years ago. She’s pioneering a new field that she calls paleo-bio-inspired robotics.
Teachers become students to become better teachers at GRASP Lab’s RET program
The Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) program run by the GRASP Lab in the School of Engineering and Applied Science is part of a larger National Science Foundation effort to get students interested in science and engineering at an early age. This summer, one cohort of students worked with robots in the Rehabilitation Robotics Lab at the Perelman School of Medicine.
Mapping the ocean with marine robots
M. Ani Hsieh’s robotics lab investigates how to use ocean currents as a natural energy source for marine robots, which would enable widespread exploration.
Guinness recognizes Piccolissimo as world’s smallest self-powered flying robot
Created in professor Mark Yim’s ModLab, with graduate student Matt Piccoli, the world’s smallest flying robot can carry the weight of a small camera or sensor, with just two moving parts achieving directional control.
New GRASP project aims to leverage ‘embodied intelligence’ via a robotic squirrel
A team of engineers from Penn's GRASP lab has designed a mechanical squirrel with "embodied intelligence," capable of pulling off parkour feats using multi-sensory adaptation to interact with its surroundings.
ModLab’s ‘SMORES’ are expanding robot autonomy
A self-assembling modular robot for extreme shapeshifting (SMORES) is designed to experience environmental features and modify its movement and function in response, bringing a new level of autonomy to the world of robotics.
When ancient technology and high-tech robots intersect
In one Penn lab, a stone-sculpting machine is helping archaeologists solve long-held mysteries of very old tools.
Building futures through LEGOs
In the FIRST LEGO League tournament, middle school teams mentored by Penn Engineering students worked to design and build robots related to the theme of water.
These robot teams will be intelligent, adaptive, and resilient
The United States Army Research Laboratory awarded the School of Engineering and Applied Science a five-year, $27 million grant to develop new methods of creating autonomous, intelligent, and resilient teams of robots.
These small robots are inspired by origami
Through origami-inspired engineering, one researcher hopes to not only create rapidly fabricable robots, but also build intuitive design software that enables others who may not be trained in engineering to create their own personalized robots.
In the News
Philadelphia Inquirer
Penn's Electric Race Car Team Seeks Fourth Title in Four Years
Eighty undergrads from a variety of departments, including Connor Sendel of the Wharton School and the School of Engineering and Applied Science, are building an electric car with four-wheel drive with hopes of winning two competitions this June.
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