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Robotics

Making fossils move to build better robots
Making extinct dinosaurs move to build better robots

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.

Jacob Williamson-Rea

Teachers become students to become better teachers at GRASP Lab’s RET program
grasp_lab

The Rehabilitation Robotics Lab at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine was one of the sites where GRASP Lab members gave local high school teachers a crash course in 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.

Penn Today Staff

Mapping the ocean with marine robots
Aquatic Robots, Hsieh Lab

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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.

Jacob Williamson-Rea

Guinness recognizes Piccolissimo as world’s smallest self-powered flying robot
tiny_robot

Professor Mark Yim and graduate student Matt Piccoli, creators of Piccolissimo.

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.

Penn Today Staff

ModLab’s ‘SMORES’ are expanding robot autonomy
smores

Photo courtesy of Penn Engineering

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.

Penn Today Staff

When ancient technology and high-tech robots intersect
Stone Tool in Harold Dibble's Hand

Harold Dibble and his team research how humans might have made stone tools and flakes, from as far back as 2 million years ago to as recently as 10,000 years ago. 

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.

Michele W. Berger

Building futures through LEGOs
 Building Futures Through LEGOs

Since this year’s theme is water, the students had to create autonomous robots that would move through LEGO field models and accomplish tasks such as collecting rain water, helping flowers grow, and putting out fires.

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.

Ali Sundermier

These robot teams will be intelligent, adaptive, and resilient

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.

Evan Lerner , Ali Sundermier