Scaling down an Insect-Size Microrobot, HAMR-VI into HAMR-Jr

Abstract

Here, we present HAMR-Jr, a 22.5 mm, 320 mg quadrupedal microrobot. With eight independently actuated degrees of freedom, HAMR-Jr is, to our knowledge, the most mechanically dexterous legged robot at its scale and is capable of high-speed locomotion (13.91 bodylengths/s) at a variety of stride frequency (1-200 Hz) using multiple gaits. We achieved this using a design and fabrication process that is flexible, allowing scaling with minimum changes to our workflow. We further characterized HAMR-Jr’s open-loop locomotion and compared it with the larger scale HAMR-VI microrobot to demonstrate the effectiveness of scaling laws in predicting running performance.