A growing demand for actuators with a volume of less than 1mm3 has driven researchers to
produce a varied range of micro/milli-scale designs. By examining the underlying physics of …

Advances in low power VLSI design, along with the potentially low duty cycle of wireless
sensor nodes open up the possibility of powering small wireless computing devices from …

This paper presents an exercise in comparing the performance of microelectromechanical
systems (MEMS) actuators and sensors as a function of operating principle. Data have been …

We have demonstrated an autonomous two-legged microrobot which has taken its first
steps. The body of the robot is fabricated in a planarized silicon-on-insulator (SOI), two-layer …

Millimeter-sized electrostatic film actuators, inspired by the efficient spatial arrangement of
insect muscles, achieve a muscle-like power density (61 W kg− 1) and enable robotic …

For Part I see L. Que, JS Park and YB Gianchandani, ibid., vol. 10, pp. 247-54 (2001). This
paper reports on the use of bent-beam electrothermal actuators for the purpose of …

This paper presents a proof-of-concept design of an inchworm-type piezoelectric actuator of
large displacement and force (or power) for shape control and vibration control of adaptive …

This work demonstrates a polycrystalline silicon surface-micromachined inchworm actuator
that exhibits high-performance characteristics such as large force (/spl plusmn/0.5 …

Electrothermal linear micromotors fabricated by deep reactive ion etching of silicon-on-
insulator wafers are presented. These high-aspect-ratio motors are powered by thermal …

The grand challenge toward the miniaturization of untethered robots is the lack of a proper
actuation system that can effectively transform the limited onboard energy into an untethered …