Margaret Coad PhD Thesis Defense

Recording of Margaret Coad's PhD thesis defense on May 21st, 2021. The thesis is titled "Design, Modeling, and Control of Vine Robots for Exploration of Unknown Environments" and is available here: https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/drui...

Abstract: Robots have great potential to be our eyes and hands in spaces too small or dangerous for humans to enter. Minimally invasive surgery, urban search and rescue, and water pipeline inspection are examples of applications where such robots could improve human health, safety, or productivity. However, most of today's robots are unsuitable for practical use in these applications, in large part because their physical bodies lack the necessary properties to navigate and manipulate the environment in these spaces. In this defense, I present my research on a relatively unexplored robotic paradigm--robotic movement via plant-like tip-growth--and its application for exploration of unknown environments. My work centers on soft growing "vine robots," which lengthen from the tip by turning their body material inside out using internal fluid pressure, and are well suited for exploration of small spaces. First, I discuss my research on design and human-in-the-loop control of vine robots, which allowed me to successfully use them in the field to explore small tunnels in an archeological site in Chavin, Peru. Then, I present my work on design, modeling, and control to expand the capabilities of these robots in three areas: enabling controlled reversal of growth, transmitting pulling forces to the environment from the robot tip, and sensing both the environment around the robot and the robot's own shape.