Kathryn Daltorio
Education
Awards and Recognitions
Research Interests
Kathryn Daltorio’s robotics research is inspired by animal behaviors that exceed current robot capabilities. She has studied the locomotion of earthworms, decision-making in cockroaches, and climbing in geckos and insects. Her robots won autonomous lawn mowing competitions, were the first to climb vertically with gecko-inspired adhesives on simple feet, and provided platforms for testing hypotheses about animal locomotion and neurobiologically-inspired control. She and her students build a range of robotic prototypes that use fabrics, mechanical linkages, adhesives, servomotors and shape-memory alloy actuators, various sensors and cameras, soft and hard polymers, and modular 3D printed parts to explore new designs and control strategies. These provide test-beds for scalable neurobiologically-inspired control networks, abstract mathematical modeling and optimization, and other software tools. Her current goals are to (1) make robots even more capable of traversing through and working in diverse, unknown environments and (2) to better understand animals as model smart physical systems.Teaching Interests
EMAE 181: Dynamics; EMAE 379/479: Mechanics and Control of Compliant RoboticsProfessional Leadership and Service
Publications
Affiliated School Research Areas
Affiliated Department Research Areas
News About Kathryn Daltorio
Kathryn Daltorio's Crab Lab tests underwater robot in Veale Center swimming pool
Earlier this year, the Veale Center swimming pool was a testing site for Kathryn ‘Kati’ Daltorio’s Crab Lab thanks to a collaboration with the Motley Scuba Diving Club. Supported by the Department of Defense, researchers in the Crab Lab, including PhD students Mingyu Pan and Yifeng Gong, are creating a waterproof crab robot that is capable of searching for and removing underwater unexploded ordnance (UXO) in shallow water.
U.S. Department of Energy awards Case Western Reserve University researcher $2M to develop worm-like tool to install underground powerlines
A Case Western Reserve University engineering researcher was awarded $2 million in federal funding to develop a worm-inspired construction tool that can install underground powerlines. The funding is part of $34 million the U.S. Department of Energy is investing in 12 projects nationally to strengthen and modernize America’s aging power grid through the development of cost-effective, high-speed and safe undergrounding technologies.
‘Soft robots’ researcher awarded NSF CAREER award
Kathryn Daltorio among multiple winners from Case School of Engineering for prestigious National Science Foundation award; will support ongoing research.
Inside the CRAB LAB: A Short Video
Student a cappella group Dhamakapella and the Veale Institute for Entrepreneurship present: Inside the CRAB LAB
‘Soft robots’ researcher awarded NSF CAREER award
Discover more about Kathryn Daltorio's research that earned her a NSF CAREER award