Aerial Microrobots: Insect-Sized Possibilities

Dr. Kevin Chen discusses his work developing insect-sized drones with unprecedented dexterity and resilience. 

If you’ve ever swatted away a mosquito, only to have it return again, you know that insects can be remarkably acrobatic and resilient in flight. Those traits help them navigate the aerial world, with all of its wind gusts, obstacles, and general uncertainty. Such traits are also hard to build into flying robots, but Dr. Chen has built a system that approaches insects’ agility.  His aerial robots are powered by a new class of soft actuator, which allows them to withstand the physical travails of real-world flight. He hopes the robots could one day aid humans by pollinating crops or performing machinery inspections in cramped spaces.

Dr. Kevin Chen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his PhD in Engineering Sciences at Harvard University in 2017 and his bachelor’s degree in Applied and Engineering Physics from Cornell University in 2012. His work focuses on developing multifunctional and multimodal insect-scale robots. His research interests also include developing high bandwidth and robust soft actuators for microrobot manipulation and locomotion. He is a recipient of the Toshio Fukuda Young Professional Award, the Steven Vogel Young Investigator Award, the NSF CAREER award, the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator award, and the Ruth and Joel Spira Teaching Excellence Award.