1080pHAMR-E: electroadhesive crawling on engine walls
A centimetre-scale tethered robot uses electroadhesive feet to crawl on vertical, inverted and curved conductive surfaces.
Tethered climbing experimentsRead case
TECHNICAL DIRECTION
Contact & manipulation
Adhesion, friction, force feedback and tool interaction.
Wyss Institute at Harvard UniversityPUBLIC CASES
1080p
1080pFLARE: twin snake robots patch thermal-barrier coatings
Two snake robots reach a combustor through limited access to observe and patch local thermal-barrier coating damage.
Laboratory engine testsRead case
1080pEELS: a snake robot for passages through ice
A segmented robot combines rotating screw propulsion with environmental mapping in ground tests on ice, snow, sand and glacier passages.
Ground prototypes and glacier testsRead case
Miniature robot for wall-to-wall transitions
Kirigami-inspired adhesive tracks and negative-pressure preload enable a miniature robot to transition between surfaces of varying curvature.
Experiments and engine-component testsRead case
720pMiniature climbing robot with active compliance
A unified active-compliance mechanism adapts to varied surfaces, with visual-inspection tests inside a decommissioned engine.
Experiments and decommissioned-engine testsRead case
VideoReachBot: finding anchors with extendable booms
Microspine grippers at the ends of extendable booms find anchors on rock surfaces.
Lab prototypes and single-boom field testsRead case
1080pmini-RCM: an origami-inspired miniature teleoperator
The miniature teleoperated mini-RCM demonstrates tracing and simulated retinal-vein cannulation.
Bench-top micromanipulationRead case
1080pAn ingestible origami robot in a stomach model
A robot unfolds from a capsule and uses magnetic guidance to remove a button battery in a simulated stomach.
Simulated-stomach proof of conceptRead case
540pTAP: torque, angle and pressure for tactile feedback
Combined tactile measurements provide contact-state feedback for placement, stacking and cutting experiments without vision.
Manipulation experimentsRead case
VideoLEMUR and gecko-inspired adhesion for spacecraft surfaces
Adhesion, locomotion and grasping studied on spacecraft-surface mock-ups and in microgravity tests.
Ground and simulated-microgravity validationRead case
VideoA space continuum arm: orbital technology tests for refuelling
Orbital tests aboard Xiyuan-0 examined simulated refuelling and compliant manipulation.
Orbital technology demonstrationRead case
VideoDextre and RRM: orbital servicing and fluid transfer
Removing caps, operating valves and transferring ethanol on an external station experiment module.
Orbital demonstration on the ISSRead case
VideoAtlas: autonomous handling of engine-cover parts
Moving parts between supplier containers and a sequencing dolly from a list of bin locations.
Manufacturer hardware demonstrationRead case
VideoOptimus Gen 2: walking, balance and hand manipulation
Tesla’s official video shows revised actuators, walking and hand motion, including gentle handling of an egg.
Manufacturer prototype demonstrationRead case
GR00T N1: bimanual humanoid manipulation
Studying pick-and-place, handovers and bimanual coordination with hardware demonstrations, simulation and task-specific adaptation.
Model and hardware manipulation experimentsRead case
π₀: from language instructions to laundry handling
A cross-embodiment vision-language-action model studies folding laundry, clearing tables and assembling boxes.
Hardware manipulation researchRead case
720pMobile ALOHA: learning with two arms and a mobile base
Teleoperated demonstrations support learned mobile tasks such as opening cabinets, rinsing a pan and cooking.
Hardware imitation-learning experimentsRead case
JOURNAL
Research noteContact & manipulation
A small step on an engine wall
How HAMR-E uses electroadhesive feet to climb inside an engine section.
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