Travel Support for Mobile Micro-Robotics Challenge at IEEE ICRA 2013

该项目计划为希望参加移动微型机器人挑战赛的学生团队提供竞争性的旅行支持。这一挑战涉及到微型机电系统(MEMS)的设计和制造方面的进展，这使得能够在受控环境中自主导航和操作的移动微型机器人的开发成为可能。预计这项技术将在智能传感器网络、活体医疗诊断和治疗以及自适应微电子等各种应用中发挥关键作用。然而，仍然存在许多挑战，特别是在移动、能量存储、嵌入式智能和运动测量方面，因此，通过支付旅行成本来帮助实现参与是有价值的。这笔赠款的更广泛影响包括研究团队有能力展示支持微尺度驱动、操纵和运动等挑战主题的工作演示。旅行援助将增加美国学生团队在国际竞争对手中的曝光率，可能会增加美国团队的知识和竞争力，因为这项赛事传统上由来自欧洲的团队主导。为期数天的比赛将在IEEE ICRA会议期间举行，为吸引广泛的技术受众提供了一个极好的机会。比赛向公众开放，以提高人们对最先进技术的认识。这些比赛为学生和领导人提供了一个机会，让他们了解微型机器人如何在社会中发挥重要作用。

This project proposes to provide competitive travel support for student teams wishing to compete in the Mobile Micro-Robotics Challenge. The challenge involves advances in the design and fabrication of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) enabling the development of mobile micro-robots that can autonomously navigate and manipulate in controlled environments. It is expected that this technology will be critical in applications as varied as intelligent sensor networks, in vivo medical diagnosis and treatment, and adaptive microelectronics. However, many challenges remain, particularly with respect to locomotion, power storage, embedded intelligence, and motion measurement, therefore, it is valuable to help enable participation by defraying travel costs. The broader impacts of this grant include the ability of research teams to showcase working demonstrations that support the challenge themes of micro-scale actuation, manipulation and locomotion. Travel assistance will increase the exposure of US student teams to international competitors, likely increasing the knowledge and competitiveness of the US-based teams since this event has traditionally been dominated by teams from Europe. The multi-day competitions will be held during the IEEE ICRA conference providing an excellent opportunity to engage a broad technical audience. The competitions are open to the general public to raise awareness of the state-of-the-art. The competitions provide an opportunity for students and leaders to learn how micro-robotics can play an important role in society.