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An army of microrobots can wipe out dental plaque
Time lapse photo of green circle shows a progressively larger cleared off area where a robot has removed a biofilm

With a precise, controlled movement, microrobots clear a glass plate of a biofilm in this time-lapse sequence.

(Image: Geelsu Hwang and Edward Steager)

An army of microrobots can wipe out dental plaque

A swarm of microrobots, directed by magnets, can break apart and remove dental biofilm, or plaque, from a tooth, thanks to a partnership led by Dental Medicine’s Hyun (Michel) Koo and Engineering’s Edward Steager.

Katherine Unger Baillie

The Power of Penn at the Met
view of Amy Gutmann on stage from the audience at the Power of Penn event with a large video screen behind her showing a video

The Power of Penn at the Met

One year into the Power of Penn campaign, President Amy Gutmann hosted a panel discussion with three professors to usher in another year of inclusion, innovation, and impact on a local and global scale.
Penn Medicine surgeons perform world’s first robotic breast reconstruction
film still of robotic surgery in action

Photo courtesy: Rebecca Elias Abboud for Penn Medicine

Penn Medicine surgeons perform world’s first robotic breast reconstruction

A team of surgeons from the Perelman School of Medicine are the first in the world to use a surgical robot to assist with a bilateral free flap breast reconstruction, allowing for a minimally invasive procedure that enhances recovery and eliminates narcotics.

Penn Today Staff

Designing autonomous robots that change shape to adapt to challenging environments
A flexible robot bends to climb a wooden staircase.

SMORES-EP in a “snake” configuration, ideal for traversing stairs. Tracked by the sensor module in the center, individual SMORES-EP modules can connect in different ways, depending on the task at hand.

Designing autonomous robots that change shape to adapt to challenging environments

Researchers at Penn’s ModLab have developed SMORES-EP, a robotic system capable of giving machines increasing autonomy. A recent paper details their work.

Jacob Williamson-Rea

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

caption here

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