Abstract:

Locomotion across natural environments such as sand, mud, and water presents a fundamental challenge for robots due to the heterogeneous, deformable, and often unpredictable properties of these substrates. In this talk, I will share how mechanical and structural adaptation can enable robust mobility in such complex settings through the development and characterization of two centimeter-scale robotic systems that leverage distinct modes of morphological adaptation.

First, TerraSkipper, a mudskipper-inspired robot that integrates a spring-steel tail and magnetically encoded fins to achieve impulsive skipping and controlled crawling across a wide range of granular and muddy substrates. Through systematic experiments that vary substrate composition and moisture content, we show that impulsive tail-driven locomotion achieves higher velocities and improved mobility where conventional frictional gaits fail, providing new insights into substrate robot interactions at the centimeter scale.

Second, PuffyBot, an amphibious shape morphing robot that employs a scissor-lift mechanism, coupled fins, and a waterproof skin to actively modulate its volume and buoyancy. Our experimental results demonstrate multimodal locomotion, including crawling on the land, crawling on the underwater floor, swimming on the water surface, and bimodal buoyancy adjustment to submerge underwater or resurface.

Together, these systems illustrate how embodied mechanical intelligence through energy-based and geometry-based adaptation extends the operational range of small robots across a wide range of terrestrial and aquatic domains. This work advances the understanding of morphology as a design variable in robot locomotion and lays the foundation for autonomous, terrain-adaptive robotic platforms capable of robust operation in unstructured natural environments.

Committee:

Prof. Zeynep Temel

Prof. Sarah Bergbreiter

Prof. Guanya Shi

Rishi Veerapaneni