Metin Sitti

Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Courtesy Appointments, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Robotics Institute

Bio

Micro- and nanoscale robotic systems constitute my main research and educational activities. In my Nanorobotics Lab, our major micro/nanorobotics research thrust area is the miniaturization of robots with variety of locomotion and manipulation capabilities at the small scale. One of my ultimate goals is to scale down some of these robots to sub-millimeter overall sizes. Unique characteristics of these miniature robots are: direct accessibility to smaller spaces and scales; new physics and mechanisms; smaller, faster, light weight, and inexpensive device; massively parallel, large numbers, and distributed operation; and multi length-scale system integration (macro/micro/nano).

My main research objectives for these robots are: to introduce a system level mechatronic design methodology including new micro/nanoscale physics, mechanisms, actuators, power sources, and control; to develop new micro/nanoscale manipulation, manufacturing and control methods; to propose alternative methods for powering miniature robots; to demonstrate unique applications for these robots with a positive impact on our society.

My approach to realize these above objectives firstly involves developing a biologically inspired miniature robot design methodology. Being inspired by lizards, insects and bacteria, new miniature climbing, crawling, swimming, and water walking robots are proposed. Adapting the just good-enough and efficient solutions of nature at the small scale to miniature robots, repeatable adhesives, new principles of locomotion, and efficient and agile motion mechanisms are introduced. Using these biomimetic robots, many unknown design, locomotion, and material properties of these biological systems are also discovered, leading to scientific contributions.

As a second approach, high volume new micro/nanoscale manufacturing and rapid prototyping methods such as laser micro-machining, micro/nanomolding, and parallel micro/nanoassembly methods have been proposed. Using these manufacturing techniques, the aim is to mass produce miniature robots to have tens or hundreds of them for mobile sensor networks and swarm robotic applications in the future. Currently, only mass-production of gecko inspired polymer microfiber adhesives in wafer scale has been demonstrated. As precision micro/nanoscale manipulation and assembly methods, Atomic force microscope (AFM) probes are used to manipulate micro/nanoentities such as particles, carbon nanotubes, and polymer fibers.  Moreover, we have recently shown to manufacture alignment and diameter controlled single or array of suspended polymer micro/nanofibers continuously using a glass micropipette based dry spinning method.  We have been using these precisely micro/nano-manufactured fiber arrays for tissue scaffolding applications.

One of the most critical bottlenecks of the miniaturization of robots is the lack of a miniature on-board energy/power source. We have been working on two alternative methods for powering miniature robots: wireless power transfer for biomedical micro-robots and harvesting power from bio-microorganisms.

As for educational activities, Professor Sitti developed a new course called Micro/Nano-Robotics (offered every spring semester). This first-time interdisciplinary course focuses on design, physics, analysis, manufacturing, and control of state-of-the-art micro/nano-robotic systems for MechE, Robotics, ECE, and BME students working on MEMS, nanotechnology, robotics, biotechnology, and etc. related fields.

All of my above research and educational activities are for advancing the micro/nanoscale robotics science and engineering and training the micro/nanoengineering workforce. Potential applications of these research activities include health-care, space, homeland security, environmental monitoring, search and rescue, entertainment, and education.

Education

B.Sc. 1992, M.Sc. 1994, Bogazici University, Turkey

Ph.D. 1999, University of Tokyo

Research Scientist & Lecturer 1999-2002, University of California at Berkeley

Selected Publications

• C. Onal, O. Ozcan, and M. Sitti, "Automated 2-D Nanoparticle Manipulation using Atomic Force Microscopy," IEEE Trans. on Nanotechnology, in press.
• B. Sumer, C. D. Onal, B. Aksak, and M. Sitti, "An Experimental Analysis of Elliptical Adhesive Contact," Journal of Applied Physics, in press.
• O. Unver and M. Sitti, "Flat Dry Elastomer Adhesives as Attachment Materials for Climbing Robots," IEEE Trans. on Robotics, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 131-141, Feb. 2010.
• C. Onal and M. Sitti, "Teleoperated 3D Force Feedback from the Nanoscale with an Atomic Force Microscope," IEEE Trans. on Nanotechnology, pp. 46-54, vol. 9, no. 1, Jan. 2010.
• A. S. Nain, S. Filiz, B. Ozdoganlar, M. Sitti, and C. Amon, "Aligned deposition and modal characterization of micron and submicron polymethyl methacyrlate fiber cantilevers," Review of Scientific Instruments, vol. 81, pp. 016102-04, 2010.
• H. S. Park, S. Floyd, and M. Sitti, "Roll and Pitch Motion Analysis of a Biologically Inspired Water Runner Robot," International Journal of Robotics Research, DOI: 10.1177/ 0278364909354391, 4 Dec. 2009.
• C. Pawashe, S. Floyd, and M. Sitti, "Two-Dimensional Contact and Non-Contact Manipulation of Particles using Magnetic Micro-Robots," IEEE Trans. on Robotics, vol. 25, no. 6, pp. 1332-1342, Dec. 2009.
• F. Krohs, C. Onal, M. Sitti, and S. Fatikow, "Towards Automated Nanoassembly With the Atomic Force Microscope: A Versatile Drift Compensation Procedure," ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control, vol. 131, no. 6, Nov. 2009.
• M. Sitti, B. Cusick, B. Aksak, A. Nese, H. Lee, H. Dong, T. Kowalewski, & K. Matyjaszewski, "Dangling Chain Elastomers as Repeatable Fibrillar Adhesives," ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, vol. 1, no. 10, pp. 2277-2287, Oct. 2009.
• C. Pawashe, S. Floyd, and M. Sitti, "Modeling and Experimental Characterization of an Untethered Magnetic Micro-Robot," International Journal of Robotics Research, vol. 28, no. 8, pp. 1077-1094, August 2009.
• C. Pawashe, S. Floyd, and M. Sitti, "Multiple Magnetic Microrobot Control using Electrostatic Clamping," Applied Physics Letters, vol. 94, p. 161408, 2009.
• A. S. Nain, M. Sitti, A. Jacobson, T. Kowalewski, and C. Amon, "Dry Spinning Spinneret based Tunable Engineered Parameters (STEP) Technique for Controlled and Aligned Deposition of Polymeric Nanofibers," Macromolecular Rapid Communications, vol. 30, no. 16, pp. 1406-1412, 18 August 2009.
• S. Kim, M. Sitti, T. Xie, and X. Xiao, "Reversible Dry Adhesives with Thermally Controllable Adhesion," Soft Matter, vol. 5, no. 19, pp. 3689-3693, 7 July 2009.
• P. Glass, H. Yong, C. Lee, E. Tworkoski, N. R. Washburn, and M. Sitti, "Biologically-Inspired Patterned and Coated Adhesives for Medical Devices," Journal of Medical Devices, vol. 3, no. 2, p. 027537, June 2009.
• P. Glass, H. Yong, N. R. Washburn, and M. Sitti, "Enhanced Reversible Adhesion of Dopamine Methacrylamide Coated Elastomer Micro-Fibrillar Structures in Wet Conditions," Langmuir, vol. 25, no. 12, pp. 6607-6612, 20 May 2009.
• E. Cheung and M. Sitti, "Adhesion of Biologically Inspired Polymer Microfibers on Soft Surfaces," Langmuir, vol. 25, no. 12, pp. 6613-6616, 20 May 2009.
• S. Kim, E. Cheung, and M. Sitti, "Wet Self-Cleaning of Biologically Inspired Elastomer Mushroom Shaped Microfibrillar Adhesives," Langmuir, vol. 25, no. 13, pp. 7196-7199, 2009.
• M. Sitti, "Miniature Devices: Voyage of the microrobots," Nature, vol. 458, pp. 1121-1122, 30 April 2009.
• M. Murphy, S. Kim, and M. Sitti, "Enhanced Adhesion by Gecko-Inspired Hierarchical Fibrillar Adhesives," ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 849-855, April 2009. (Appeared in the journal cover page)
• M. Murphy, B. Aksak, and M. Sitti, "Gecko Inspired Directional and Controllable Adhesion," Small, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 170-175, 19 Jan. 2009.
• P. Glass, M. Sitti, A. Pennathur, and R. Appasamy, "A Swallowable Tethered Capsule Endoscope for Diagnosing Barrett's Esophagus," Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, vol. 69, no. 5, p. AB106, April 2009.
• C. Onal and M. Sitti, "Scaled Bilateral Control for Experimental One-Dimensional Teleoperated Nanomanipulation," International Journal of Robotics Research, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 484-497, 2009.
• C. Y. Hui, R. Long, S. Kim, and M. Sitti, "How does Backing Layer Thickness Affect Adhesion of Fibrillar Interfaces?," Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 104, pp. 044301-044309, 2008.
• P. Glass, E. Cheung, and M. Sitti, "A Legged Anchoring Mechanism for Capsule Endoscopes using Micropatterned Adhesives," IEEE Trans. on Biomedical Engineering, vol. 55, no. 12, pp. 2759-2767, Dec. 2008.
• E. Cheung and M. Sitti, "Adhesion of Biologically Inspired Oil-Coated Polymer Micropillars," Journal of Adhesion Science and Technology, vol. 22, pp. 569-589, 2008.
• N. A. Lynch, C. Onal, E. Schuster, and M. Sitti, "A Strategy for Vision-Based Controlled Pushing of Microparticles," Journal of Micro/Nano-Mechatronics, vol. 4, no. 1-2, pp. 73-83, 2008.
• B. Behkam and M. Sitti, "Effect of quantity and configuration of attached bacteria on bacterial propulsion of microbeads," Applied Physics Letters, vol. 93, pp. 223901-03, 2008.
• C. Onal, B. Sumer, and M. Sitti, "Cross-Talk Compensation in Atomic Force Microscopy," Review of Scientific Instruments, vol. 79, pp. 103706-11, 2008.
• A. Nain, J. A. Phillippi, M. Sitti, J. MacKrell, C. Amon, and P. G. Campbell, "Control of Cell Behavior by Aligned Micro/Nanofibrous Biomaterial Scaffolds Fabricated by Spinneret-based Tunable Engineered Parameters (STEP) Technique," Small, vol. 4, no. 8, pp. 1153-1159, 2008.
• S. Floyd and M. Sitti, "Design and Development of the Lifting and Propulsion Mechanism for a Biologically Inspired Water Runner Robot," IEEE Trans. on Robotics, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 698-709, June 2008.
• B. Sumer and M. Sitti, "Rolling and Spinning Friction Characterization of Fine Particles using Lateral Force Microscopy based Contact Pushing," Journal of Adhesion Science and Technology, vol. 22, pp. 481-506, 2008.
• M. Sitti, "Microscale and nanoscale robotics systems - Characteristics, state of the art, and grand challenges," IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 53-60, March 2007.
• C. D. Onal and M. Sitti, "Visual Servoing based Autonomous 2D Manipulation of Microparticles using a Nanoprobe," IEEE Trans. on Control Systems Technology, vol. 15, no. 5, pp. 842-852, Sept. 2007.
• Y. S. Song and M. Sitti, "Surface Tension Driven Biologically Inspired Water Strider Robots: Theory and Experiments," IEEE Trans. on Robotics, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 578-589, June 2007.
• M. Murphy and M. Sitti, "Waalbot: An Agile Small-Scale Wall Climbing Robot Utilizing Pressure Sensitive Adhesives," IEEE/ASME Trans. on Mechatronics, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 330-338, June 2007.
• S. Kim, B. Aksak, and M. Sitti, "Enhanced Friction of Polymer Microfiber Adhesives with Spatulate Tips," Applied Physics Letters, vol. 91, no. 22, pp. 221913-15, 2007.
• S. Kim, M. Sitti, C.Y. Hui, R. Long, and A. Jagota, "Effect of Soft Backing Layer Thickness on Adhesion of Single-Level Elastomer Fiber Arrays," Applied Physics Letters, vol. 91, pp. 161905-7, 2007.
• M. Murphy, B. Aksak, and M. Sitti, "Adhesion and Anisotropic Friction Enhancement of Angled Heterogeneous Micro-Fiber Arrays with Spherical and Spatula Tips," Journal of Adhesion Science and Technology, vol. 21, no. 12-13, pp. 1281-1296, 2007.
• B. Aksak, M. Sitti, A. Cassell, J. Li, M. Meyyappan, and P. Callen, "Friction of Partially Embedded Vertically Aligned Carbon Nanofibers inside Elastomers," Applied Physics Letters, vol. 91, pp. 061906-8, July 2007. 
• A. Tafazzoli, C.-M. Cheng, C. Pawashe, E. K. Sabo, L. Trofin, M. Sitti, and P. R. LeDuc, "Subfeature patterning of organic and inorganic materials using robotic assembly," Journal of Materials Research, vol. 22, no. 6, pp. 1601-1608, June 2007.
• P. Glass, M. Sitti, and R. Appasamy, "A new biomimetic adhesive for therapeutic capsule endoscope applications in the gastrointestinal tract," Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, vol. 65, no. 5, p. AB91, Apr. 2007.
• B. Aksak, M. Murphy, and M. Sitti, "Adhesion of Biologically Inspired Vertical and Angled Polymer Microfiber Arrays," Langmuir, vol. 23, no. 6, pp. 3322-3332, March 13, 2007.
• B. Behkam and M. Sitti, "Bacterial Flagella-Based Propulsion and On/Off Motion Control of Microscale Objects," Applied Physics Letters, vol. 90, pp. 23902-23904, 14 Jan. 2007.
• K. Song, V. Kartik, J. Wickert, and M. Sitti, "An Ultrasonic Standing-Wave-Actuated Nano-Positioning Walking Robot: PZT-Metal Composite Beam Modeling," Journal of Vibration and Control, vol. 12, no. 12, pp. 1293-1309, 2006.
• S. Kim and M. Sitti, "Biologically Inspired Polymer Microfibers with Spatulate Tips as Repeatable Fibrillar Adhesives," Applied Physics Letters, vol. 89, no. 26, pp. 261911-13, 27 Dec. 2006.
• A. Nain, J. Wong, C. Amon, and M. Sitti, "Drawing suspended polymer micro/nanofibers using glass micropipettes," Applied Physics Letters, vol. 89, no.18, pp. 183105-7, 2006.
• J. Kwon, E. Cheung, S. Park, and M. Sitti, "Friction Enhancement via Micro-Patterned Wet Elastomer Adhesives on Small Intestinal Surfaces," Biomedical Materials, vol. 1, pp. 216-220, 2006.
• C. Menon and M. Sitti, "Biologically Inspired Adhesion based Climbing Robots," Journal of Bionic Engineering, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 115-126, Sept 2006.
• C. Pawashe and M. Sitti, "Two-Dimensional Vision-Based Autonomous Microparticle Assembly using Nanoprobes," Journal of Micromechatronics, vol. 3, no. 3-5, pp. 285-306, 2006.
• W. Vogl, B. Ma, and M. Sitti, "Augmented Reality User Interface for an Atomic Force Microscope based Nanorobotic System," IEEE Trans. on Nanotechnology, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 397-406, 2006. 
• A. Nain, C. Amon, and M. Sitti, "Proximal Probes based Nanorobotic Drawing of Polymer Micro/Nanofibers," IEEE Trans. on Nanotechnology, vol. 5, no. 5, pp. 499-510, Sept. 2006.
• S. G. Kim and M. Sitti, "Task-Based and Stable Tele-Nanomanipulation in a Nanoscale Virtual Environment," IEEE Trans. on Automation Science and Engineering, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 240-247, July 2006. 
• B. Behkam and M. Sitti, "Design Methodology for Biomimetic Propulsion of Miniature Swimming Robots," ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control, vol. 128, no. 1, pp. 36-43, March 2006.
• B. Yang, B. Aksak, Q. Lin, and M. Sitti, "Compliant and Low-Cost Humidity Nanosensors using Nano-Porous Polymer Membranes," Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, vol. 114, no. 1, pp. 254-262, 30 March 2006.

Selected Awards, Prizes, Honors

2009: Best Paper Award in the IEEE/RSJ Intelligent Robots and Systems Conference (IROS'09) for the research paper entitled, "Microparticle Manipulation using Multiple Untethered Magnetic Micro-Robots on an Electrostatic Surface"

2009: Nominated for the World Technology Award, Health and Medicine category, due to his work involving a tiny capsule robot that is adhesive enough to anchor inside an intestine and yet gentle enough not to tear soft tissue

2008: Two Papers selected among Core 15 Papers for Thomson Scientific's Fast Moving Front Map of Materials Science: S. Kim and M. Sitti, Appl. Phys. Lett. (2006) and K. Autumn, M. Sitti, et al., PNAS (2002)

2008: Innovation Works Award from Carnegie Mellon towards commercializing gecko foot-hair inspired adhesives

2008: Best Paper Finalist in the IEEE Robotics and Biomimetics Conference for the research paper entitled, "A Novel Artificial Hair Receptor Based on Aligned PVDF Micro/Nano Fibers"

2007: Adamson Career Faculty Fellow at Carnegie Mellon due to contributions to bio-inspired micro/nano-robotics research activities

2007: Second Prize in the World RoboCup Nanogram League competition, Atlanta

2007: Best and Brightest of Esquire Magazine given to people whose work is not only innovative and inspirational, but who have the potential to change the way we live

2007: Most huggable professor in Mechanical Engineering, selected by all seniors

2006: Distinguished Lecturer, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, 2006-2008

2006: Most friendly professor, selected by all graduate students in Mechanical Engineering

2005: National Science Foundation CAREER award for the research and teaching activities about nanorobotic manipulation systems using Atomic Force Microscope probes

2005: Invited speaker to the National Academy of Sciences, Keck Foundation Life Engineering Symposium for giving a talk on biologically inspired miniature robots, San Francisco, CA, 18 August 2005

2005: Struminger Faculty Award for the teaching activities related to micro/nano-robotics at Carnegie Mellon

2004: Best Paper Finalist in the IEEE Nanotechnology Conference (IEEE NANO'04), Munich, Germany for the research paper entitled, "Nanomanipulation with 3D Visual and Force Feedback using Atomic Force Microscopes"

2004: Best Biomimetics Paper Award in the IEEE Robotics and Biomimetics Conference (RoBio'04) for the research paper entitled, "Gecko Inspired Climbing Robots"

2004: Best Manipulation Paper Finalist in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Conference (ICRA'04) for the research paper entitled, "Three-Dimensional Nanoscale Manipulation and Manufacturing using Proximal Probes: Controlled Pulling of Polymer Micro/Nanofibers"

2002: Best Video Award in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Conference for the research video entitled, "The Micromechanical Flying Insect"

2001: Best Student Paper Finalist in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Conference (ICRA'01) for the research paper entitled, "Development of a Scaled Teleoperation System for Nano Scale Interaction and Manipulation"

2000: Best Paper Finalist in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Conference (ICRA'00) for the research paper entitled, "Wing Transmission for a Micromechanical Flying Insect" (Five papers were finalists out of around 1100 papers)

1998: Best Paper Award in the IEEE/RSJ Intelligent Robot Systems Conference (IROS'98) for the research paper entitled, "Tele-Nanorobotics using Atomic Force Microscope"

1996-1999: Japanese Ministry of Education Monbusho Research Fellowship during all PhD education