Event Location: NSH 1305
Bio: Mark Cutkosky (Ph.D. CMU 1985) is a Professor in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. He formerly was a lecturer at CMU and a design engineer at ALCOA. He has lead numerous projects in dexterous manipulation, haptics, bio-inspired robotics and design collaboration. He has graduated over 30 Ph.D. students in these areas, currently in leading academic and industrial positions. His awards include: Time Magazine Best Inventions (2006), several best paper awards (IEEE, ASME), Fulbright Chair (Italy 2002), NSF Presidential Young Investigator, Charles M. Pigott Professor, and Anderson Faculty Scholar.

Abstract: Hybrid aerial/scansorial robotics is a new development that builds upon previous work in unmanned air vehicles and climbing robots, and seeks to emulate the capabilities of bats, insects and certain birds that combine powered flight with the ability to land and perch on sloped and vertical surfaces. As it approaches a wall, the plane executes an intentional pitch-up maneuver to shed speed and present its feet for landing. On contact, a nonlinear suspension dissipates the remaining kinetic energy and directs interaction forces toward the feet, to engage small asperities on surfaces such as brick or concrete. The presentation will cover the dynamic modeling, suspension design and control used to achieve vertical landing and attachment for a wide range of initial conditions, and the strategies used to disengage and take off again.