Morph Lab, Imperial College London — Design Engineering Showcase 2023

Student: Tianying Gao
Team: Design Engineering
Role: Research Assistant
Sector: Technology
Links: Email

Within Morph Lab, we investigate embodied intelligence by employing soft robotics as our experimental paradigm. I have been working on the “Natural Intelligence Project”, the objective of which is to serve the European Green Deal with robots capable of accomplishing monitoring of natural habitats. I was tasked with designing the feet of the robots by taking inspirations from gravity-defying climbers in nature, mountain goats. My final output includes making hoof-like prototypes out of silicone and resin and testing their feasibility.

Role and Contributions

My placement role is an undergraduate research assistant in Morph Lab, Imperial College London. In Morph Lab, we take a deep look into body and brain as well as the environment around us, trying to solve the mysteries of dynamic survival challenges. My research focuses on finding a mechanical solution to passively reduce slippage for quadruped robots by designing a mountain-goat-inspired hoof as its foot.

My contributions:

1. Thoroughly studying the anatomy of mountain goat hooves; Designing a prototype hoof through design iterations, which replicates the main features of a mountain goat, namely the two digits, the interdigital ligaments as well as the hard outer sole and soft inner sole; Manufacturing it using equipment including 3D printers, resin printers and silicone moulding; Laying out the test plan to study the behaviour of the prototype under static and dynamic testing conditions; Carrying out the tests and analysing the performance of the prototype by tracking its motion with Vicon camera.

2. Helping other lab members with their experiments by both actively participating in their tests and helping them with the test setup and improving their testing process.

Project Details

Role and Contributions