NSF Project Inchworm

NSF Project Inchworm

NSF CMMI 1825918 teacher training

There are many ways that animals get around—and none of them include wheels. By creating tools and processes that make it easier for people to explore how robots can do what animals do, we hope to accelerate the discovery of new solutions to important problems.

What Are We Doing?

Building robots that don’t rely on wheels, and making it affordable for students and makers around the world to do likewise.

Why?

Because arthropods are very successful, and none of them have wheels or big budgets. Lowering the cost of exploration increases the likelihood of amazing discoveries. Humanity will find the best solutions when as many people as possible are trying as many clever things as possible.

Who Are We?

Professor Shai Revzen and the team at the University of Michigan’s Biologically Inspired Robotics and Dynamical Systems (BIRDS) Lab.

The BIRDS Lab is dedicated to understanding, modeling, and reproducing the strategies animals use when interacting with physical objects. In collaboration with biomechanists and other researchers, engineers, and artists we analyze experimental data, develop new mathematical tools for modeling these interactions, and construct robots that employ these new principles.

The “Multipod” legged robot built in the BIRDS Lab

How Can Anyone Get Started Building Legged Robots?

Basically you need four things to build a legged robot:

  1. Any relatively recent computer (these instructions were tested on a five-year-old “Grade C” refurbished HP EliteBook 8470P laptop bought on Newegg for ~$150, several Intel-based MacBooks running macOS 10.14 and later, and a random selection of Chromebooks)
  2. A bunch of free open-source software that the laptop needs to control your robot and a cheap USB “thumbdrive” to store it on (we used an old SanDisk Cruzer 8 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive like this one)
  3. ~$175 in basic electronic components (motors, controllers, resistors, wires, etc.)
  4. Same craft supplies (foamcore, glue, a hobby knife, tape, etc.)

Let’s Do It!

There are five steps to getting started in no-wheels, all-legs robotics:

  1. Go get everything on the Shopping List
  2. Download, install, test, and configure the Software
  3. Connect and test the Hardware
  4. Learn to Control the hardware with the software
  5. Build your robot a body
  6. BONUS: Moving up to MediumANT!

Further Resources