How do you make robots more accessible to non-experts? This Penn researcher has some ideas

Cynthia Sung thinks everyone should have access to robots.

She acknowledges robots can be expensive and difficult to design, which is why we don’t commonly see them in the average household. But she wants to change that through her research.

Who, What, Why: Devin Carroll and his robot made of tree branches

At Penn, Carroll designs and builds robots made from the materials around us, like tree branches and ice. He says, “When I was growing up, one of the major barriers to working with robots was that we didn’t have access to parts, so I want to show people what we can do with the stuff around us.”

The next generation of micrometer-scale batteries

James Pikul speaks to the growth of interconnected devices and the robotics industry—leading to emerging designs and novel research unlocking the potential for smaller, more powerful batteries.