Welcome to the Robotic Materials Group at WPI. We work on a new class of made-to-order, 3D printable robots with the capability to tolerate levels of structural deformations that would disable conventional approaches to computing and control. The goal of our research is to be able to rapidly design, fabricate, and deploy a highly customized fleet of robots to respond to unique and urgent missions. The synergistic use of mechanical intelligence, embedded fluidic circuits, and flexible electronics will enable these robots to navigate small, winding spaces in cave systems or debris fields, as might be required for robotic search-and-rescue or exploration.

We retrofit aerial, ground, and underwater robots to transport and deploy our made-to-order robots at points of their biggest impact. Mother-ship type collaborative strategies among deploying and deployed robots are studied to learn requirements for actual field deployments.

Funding sources and collaborators