DARPA SHRIMP developed microrobots for search and rescue, disaster relief, infrastructure inspection, and equipment maintenance

Imagine a natural disaster scenario, such as an earthquake, that inflicts widespread damage to buildings and structures, critical utilities and infrastructure, and threatens human safety. Having the ability to navigate the rubble and enter highly unstable areas could prove invaluable to saving lives or detecting additional hazards among the wreckage.

 

Partnering rescue personnel with robots to evaluate high-risk scenarios and environments can help increase the likelihood of successful search and recovery efforts, or other critical tasks while minimizing the threat to human teams.

 

“Whether in a natural disaster scenario, a search and rescue mission, a hazardous environment, or other critical relief situation, robots have the potential to provide much needed aide and support,” said Dr. Ronald Polcawich, a DARPA program manager in the Microsystems Technology Office (MTO). “However, there are a number of environments that are inaccessible for larger robotic platforms. Smaller robotics systems could provide significant aide, but shrinking down these platforms requires significant advancement of the underlying technology.”

 

Miniaturized robotic systems that make use of micro technologies are termed as microrobots. A microrobot may also be defined as one that possesses traits of a robot in the macro world and has some form of reprogrammable behaviour and is capable of adapting, the only difference to a macrorobot being the scale at which they are placed.

 

The most challenging aspect in the development of microrobots is the fabrication of micro actuators and micro sensors which can give high efficiency and high stability. To overcome such problems scientists and researchers are combining technologies such as Micro/Nano Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS, NEMS), nanotechnology and biotechnology.

 

To help overcome the challenges of creating extremely SWaP-constrained microrobotics, DARPA is launching a new program called SHort-Range Independent Microrobotic Platforms (SHRIMP).

 

“Micro-to-mm sized platforms provide a unique opportunity to push the development of highly efficient, versatile microelectronics,” said Polcawich. “While the goal of SHRIMP is to develop small-scale, independent robotics platforms, we anticipate that discoveries made through our actuator and power storage research could prove beneficial to a number of fields currently constrained by these technical challenges–from prosthetics to optical steering.”