With rapid advancements in robotics and AI, the line between science fiction and reality continues to blur. At the heart of this innovation lies a breakthrough: drones designed to solve pressing global challenges, from pollinating crops to navigating wildfire zones.

This vision drives Assistant Professor Chahat Singh, leader of the  (Perception, Robotics, AI and Sensing) Lab in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering. With an academic background spanning electronics, robotics, and computer science, Singh is dedicated to exploring the frontiers of bio-inspired robotics and AI in resource-constrained systems.

Assistant Professor Chahat Singh next to one of his compact and autonomous robotic designs.

Singh’s overarching research question is deceptively simple: What is the minimum amount of computational power, sensor capability, and resources required for small robots to achieve autonomy? This challenge is compounded by the scale of the robots he designs, which are constrained by limited computational capacity and lightweight requirements. They are two to three inches in length and orders of magnitude smaller in terms of physical size and computational power than traditional robots. “We’re working with systems that have 100 times less computing power than a Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot,” Singh explained. “The goal is to achieve autonomy with the bare minimum.”

One of Singh’s most notable projects focuses on autonomous drones for pollination, inspired by the overwhelming loss of honeybee colonies. “The question was whether today’s robotics and AI could fill this gap until we have a more sustainable biological solution,” Singh said. The answer lies in his innovative, lightweight drones that can navigate autonomously through forests and fields without relying on external communication or GPS, making them secure and efficient.

Singh’s current drone model incorporates multiple onboard cameras, which enables it to identify and align with flowers for pollination. The cameras use advanced neural depth-perception algorithms powered by AI-accelerated computers. Many creatures have developed different pupil shapes based on their habitats which allow variations in incoming light and amount of blur to help them determine the depth of objects. “The cameras are inspired by biological systems,” he explained.  

Singh showcasing the small scale of materials in his robot's design. His goal is to develop autonomous drones with less resources and power than traditional robots.

Singh’s drones are not just technologically advanced—they’re engineering marvels. Built from carbon fiber frames, these drones are lightweight yet robust, weighing around 250 grams. They use lithium ion batteries which are heavy and tend to die quickly, so he has started to look at ways to charge the batteries while the robots are outside. 

To overcome these limitations, Singh has developed a “mother drone” system. The larger drone carries smaller drones to the target area and acts as a mobile charging station. Once deployed, the smaller drones autonomously search for flowers and begin pollination. This approach not only extends operational time but also reduces the energy expenditure of individual drones. “It’s a highly efficient system that mirrors natural ecosystems,” Singh said.

While the pollination drones have gathered attention, Singh’s research has broader implications. His team is working on compressing advanced AI models, such as language and vision models, to operate on resource-constrained systems. “Imagine a robot navigating a forest during a wildfire,” Singh said. “It needs to make decisions on the spot, without internet access or pre-programmed instructions. That’s the next frontier—embedding foundational AI models into small, autonomous robots.”

Singh’s vision extends to deploying fleets of robots for tasks like firefighting, disaster response, and ecological monitoring. By creating swarms of cost-effective, autonomous robots, he aims to revolutionize industries that rely on expensive, large-scale systems. “Smaller robots are not just cool—they’re necessary,” he emphasized. “They offer safety, robustness, and cost-effectiveness.”

Despite the groundbreaking nature of his work, he is committed to open-source principles. “I believe in openness because this research is for the greater good,” he said. Singh has already shared software for drone operation and plans to release additional resources to empower other researchers and innovators.

When asked about his favorite part of the research, Singh highlighted the hope it brings for the future. “Whether it’s addressing ecological crises or enhancing technology, I want to create robot systems that are safe, innovative and sustainable,” he said. “This is about pushing the boundaries of what’s possible while respecting the natural world.”

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It’s been six years since the launch of startup company , co-founded by Professor Mark Rentschler of the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering. The company has seen great success, including the development of a medical device designed to enable more efficient procedures in the small bowel region.

Today, with the help of a $4.5 million award through the Anschutz Acceleration Initiative (AAI), Rentschler and his colleagues are working to bring two new products to the market that will transform these types of procedures even further.

“We brought our first product out on the market in 2024,” said Rentschler, also a faculty member in biomedical engineering (BME) and robotics. “We are planning to bring a second and third product to the market in 12-18 months, and we are extremely excited to get these devices in the hands of interventional endoscopists.”

Professor Mark Rentschler holding Aspero Medical's patented Ancora-SB balloon overtube.

In 2023, Aspero received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market and sell the Ancora-SB device. The product is used during endoscopy procedures to diagnose and treat small bowel diseases.

According to Rentschler, operating within the small intestine can be time consuming and technically challenging. Equipped with a patented micro-textured balloon, the Ancora-SB overtube is designed to provide more traction and anchoring consistency than smooth latex or smooth silicone balloon overtube competitors.

“Balloon overtubes for small bowel procedures have been around for about a decade,” said Rentschler. “We’re not looking to change the small bowel enteroscopy procedure, but instead improve balloon anchoring performance during these procedures in the small bowel.”

Ancora-SB has allowed Aspero to prove their worth in hospitals. Their next products expand on this concept, of course, with additional features that can facilitate a less invasive interventional procedure than traditional open surgery.

The next generation balloon overtube will be used to remove cancerous lesions in the large bowel region. It features an extra working channel that allows for an additional tool to be utilized alongside the visualization scope. This offers physicians more control, access, and stabilization when maneuvering through the colon and performing advanced interventional procedures.

“Conceptually, these devices will enable triangulated surgery with two tools and centralized visualization so that physicians can more efficiently perform surgery from inside the lumen,” Rentschler said. “Instead of historically invasive procedures, where the patient is cut open, and the cancerous bowel region is removed, we’re assisting physicians as they remove the cancer from the inside of the lumen during an outpatient procedure.

“It's much less invasive, with potentially tremendous cost savings, and numerous benefits for the patient.”

Aspero’s third product will be another balloon overtube, this time with a working channel that enables minimally invasive cancer removal in the esophagus and stomach regions of the gastrointestinal tract. 

Rentschler showcasing all three of the medical devices in Aspero Medical's multi-product platform, including their two new highly anticipated devices.

Rentschler and his team say the two upcoming devices have the potential to replace a large, and growing, number of today’s conventional surgical procedures in the gastrointestinal region by enhancing safety and efficiency while reducing patient recovery time. Moving procedures from inpatient surgery to outpatient endoscopy can generate potential cost savings of up to 50 percent or more.

“Everyone knows this is the direction we need to go. Clinical outcomes from these types of procedures are incredibly strong, but the techniques and devices aren’t widely available yet,” said Rentschler. “We are creating products that help physicians and patients feel safe and comfortable without overcomplicating things. The paradigm is rapidly shifting, and we endeavor to push endoscopy forward.”

The company is currently finalizing the design of the second product. It’s about six months further along in development than the third product, but Rentschler says they are looking to have both devices FDA cleared by the end of 2026. 

When all three devices hit the market, Aspero will look to market a portfolio of products, rather than a single tool. But further innovation is on the horizon, this time incorporating the Ancora balloon technology with a robotic element.

“Ancora is a multi-product platform focusing on the small bowel, large bowel, stomach and esophageal regions,” Rentschler said. “Our next potential venture will be in flexible robots. We’ll continue with our balloon overtubes, but as anchoring platforms to be used with flexible robotic endoscopy systems.”

Until then, Rentschler and company are full steam ahead on these next products. The $4.5 million AAI grant is being offered over a four year span, but they anticipate spending that money much sooner so they can get the devices out on the market and begin positively impacting patients and physicians everywhere.

But that’s not their only goal. With a lot of Colorado involved in the company’s revolutionizing technology, Rentschler hopes to also tell another story.

“I started Aspero Medical with Dr. Steven Edmundowicz at CU Anschutz. We’ve received a number of grants from the state of Colorado and everyone involved is invested in our vision,” said Rentschler. “We believe that a rising tide raises all boats, and when we think of Aspero, we want it to be a successful Colorado story.”

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Watch Jacob Segil, CEO of Afference and research professor in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering, showcase a new piece of haptic technology in an episode of Freethink's Hard Reset docuseries that will "redraw the borders of reality."

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One thousand feet underground, a four-legged creature scavenges through tunnels in pitch darkness. With vision that cuts through the blackness, it explores a spider web of paths, remembering its every step and navigating with precision. The sound of its movements echo eerily off the walls, but it is not to be feared – this is no wild animal; it is an autonomous rescue robot.

Initially designed to find survivors in collapsed mines, caves, and damaged buildings, that is only part of what it can do.

Created by a team of ��ɫ��Ƶ researchers and students, the robots placed third as the top US entry and earned $500,000 in prize money at a Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency Subterranean Challenge competition in 2021.

Going Futher

Two years later, they are pushing the technology even further, earning new research grants to expand the technology and create new applications in the rapidly growing world of autonomous systems.

“Ideally you don’t want to put humans in harm’s way in disaster situations like mines or buildings after earthquakes; the walls or ceilings could collapse and maybe some already have,” said Sean Humbert, a professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Robotics Program at ��ɫ��Ƶ. “These robots can be disposable while still providing situational awareness.”

The team developed an advanced system of sensors and algorithms to allow the robots to function on their own – once given an assignment, they make decisions autonomously on how to best complete it.

Advanced Communication

A major goal is to get them from engineers directly into the hands of first responders. Success requires simplifying the way the robots transmit data into something approximating plain English, according to Kyle Harlow, a computer science PhD student.

“The robots communicate in pure math. We do a lot of work on top of that to interpret the data right now, but a firefighter doesn’t have that kind of time,” Harlow said.

To make that happen Humbert is collaborating with Chris Heckman, an associate professor of computer science, to change both how the robots communicate and how they represent the world. The robots’ eyes – a LiDAR sensor – creates highly detailed 3D maps of an environment, 15 cm at a time. That’s a problem when they try to relay information – the sheer amount of data clogs up the network.

“Humans don’t interpret the environment in 15 cm blocks,” Humbert said. “We’re now working on what’s called semantic mapping, which is a way to combine contextual and spatial information. This is closer to how the human brain represents the world and is much less memory intensive.”

High Tech Mapping

The team is also integrating new sensors to make the robots more effective in challenging environments. The robots excel in clear conditions but struggle with visual obstacles like dust, fog, and snow. Harlow is leading an effort to incorporate millimeter wave radar to change that.

“We have all these sensors that work well in the lab and in clean environments, but we need to be able to go out in places such as Colorado where it snows sometimes,” Harlow said.

Where some researchers are forced to suspend work when a grant ends, members of the subterranean robotics team keep finding new partners to push the technology further.

Autonomous Flight

Eric Frew, a professor of aerospace at ��ɫ��Ƶ, is using the technology for a new National Institute of Standards and Technology competition to develop aerial robots – drones – instead of ground robots, to autonomously map disaster areas indoors and outside.

“Our entry is based directly on the Subterranean Challenge experience and the systems developed there,” Frew said.

Some teams in the competition will be relying on drones navigated by human operators, but Frew said ��ɫ��Ƶ’s project is aiming for an autonomous solution that allows humans to focus on more critical tasks.

Although numerous universities and private businesses are advancing autonomous robotic systems, Humbert said other organizations often focus on individual aspects of the technology. The students and faculty at ��ɫ��Ƶ are working on all avenues of the systems and for uses in environments that present extreme challenges.

“We’ve built world-class platforms that incorporate mapping, localization, planning, coordination – all the high level stuff, the autonomy, that’s all us,” Humbert said. “There are only a handful of teams across the world that can do that. It’s a huge advantage that ��ɫ��Ƶ has.”

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The ME Course Column is a recurring publication about the unique classes and labs that mechanical engineers can take while at the ��ɫ��Ƶ. Follow the series to understand the core curriculum, discover elective course options and learn the broad applications of mechanical engineering skills.

Bio-inspired robotics is the interface of biology and engineering – motivating the development of technology from artificial muscles and medical devices to gecko-inspired adhesives and robots that run, fly and swim.

Professor Kaushik Jayaram

Header image: Students remodeled CAD hand using bio-inspired robotics.

The field focuses on solving technical problems with designs inspired by nature – going beyond the idea of simply copying existing biological solutions.

MCEN 4228/5228: Bio-inspired Robotics introduces engineers to this area of study. Taught by Professor Kaushik Jayaram, the course compels students to develop useful solutions for societal issues by combining mechanisms in biological solutions with best human practices. Students learn to translate the principles of function, performance and aesthetics from biology to human technology.

“At a very high level, this course is about understanding the philosophy of what bio-inspired engineering is,” Jayaram said. “Since this is a fundamentally interdisciplinary field, we cannot do bio-inspiration in isolation.”

Jayaram introduces students to a series of projects and case studies to understand successful approaches to bio-inspired robotics. One of the projects involves students modifying 3D-printed hands with biological inspirations from an animal of their choice.

“Basically, they start off with a CAD model and then add to it,” Jayaram said. “For example, koalas have six fingers – two thumbs on each hand. Some groups get inspiration from that and find their model is better at gripping."

Bio-inspired Robotics culminates in students designing and building their own bio-inspired devices. They start by identifying a novel biological discovery that can be translated to an application for technology.

Students have developed ideas to advance robotic locomotion. They have channeled biological solutions like webbed feet and fins for better movement in water or wings for maximum energy motion in flight.

Other projects have resulted in algorithms and simulated software inspired by how rats use their sense of touch and smell to navigate complex mazes. Another group looked at the surface of leaves and their condensation abilities to build a water filter for desert areas.

“There is a wide range of examples from animals to plants and in both hardware and software,” Jayaram said. “Somebody who is working in this field needs to have a strong understanding of biology, a strong understanding of different kinds of engineering and potentially have an understanding about art, ethics and society.”

While the inventive and technical processes of Bio-inspired Robotics prepare students to enter a variety of engineering fields, the creative and insightful aspects also strengthen their prospects in entrepreneurship.

Jayaram wants to eventually open the course to students outside of science fields because of the interdisciplinary nature of bio-inspired engineering. This would mean including students with diverse backgrounds such as business, humanities and the arts.

Bio-inspired Engineering is currently open to juniors, seniors and graduate students in mechanical and biomedical engineering, as well as those studying engineering management.
 

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