Natural swarms, such as ants, bees, and termites, exhibit sophisticated colony level behaviors with remarkably scalable and error tolerant properties. Their evolutionary success stems from more than just intelligent individuals, it hinges on their morphology, their physical interactions, and the way they shape and leverage their environment. Petersen's research explores how the same principles can be leveraged to achieve advanced autonomy in robot collectives, through hardware and software co-development, and by integrating the shared environment into the design process. Current research themes span collective robotic construction, human swarm interaction, soft robot collectives, biological swarms, and bio-hybrid collectives.
Kirstin did her postdoctoral work with Director Sitti at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems 2014-2016 and became a fellow with the Max Planck ETH Center for Learning Systems in 2015. Her thesis was completed in 2014 with Professor Nagpal at Harvard University and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. She completed a masters in Computer Systems Engineering with Professor Hallam at the University of Southern Denmark in 2008, and a bachelor in electro-technical engineering with Odense University College of Engineering in 2005.
Researchers have developed collectives of microrobots - each slightly larger than a hair's width - capable of reconfiguring their swarm behavior to move in circles, bunch up into a clump, spread out... Read more about ‘Swarming’ microrobots display versatile movement
Six faculty members have received the 2021 Cornell Engineering Research Excellence Award – the highest research honor given by the Ivy League’s top-ranked engineering college. Read more about Powerful X-rays, energy tech, wireless charging earn faculty Research Excellence Awards
Honeybees are skilled architects who plan ahead and solve design challenges when constructing honeycombs, offering strategies that engineers may learn from when they use honeycomb structures in... Read more about Engineers may learn from bees for optimal honeycomb designs
