TITLE		Associate Professor
AREAS		Micro/Nano-Robotics, Nanotechnology, MEMS/NEMS, and Bionanotechnology
DEGREES		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.
WEBPAGE		RI Homepage
PHONE		412-268-3632
FAX		412-268-3348
EMAIL		msitti@andrew.cmu.edu
ADDRESS		Carnegie Mellon University Department of Mechanical Engineering 324 Scaife Hall 5000 Forbes Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15213

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.

Professor Sitti has been appointed as the Adamson Career Faculty Fellow in 2007.  He received the National Science Foundation CAREER award and the CMU Struminger award in 2005.  He was invited as a speaker to the National Academy of Sciences, Keck Foundation Life Engineering Symposium in 2005.  He was elected as the Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Soceity for 2006-2008.  He received the second prize in the World RoboCup Nanogram Demonstration League (2007), the best biomimetics paper award in the IEEE Robotics and Biomimetics Conference (2004), the best paper award in the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (1998), and the best video award (2002) in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Conference.  He is the Vice President of the Technical Activities in the IEEE Nanotechnology Council for 2008-2010, and he is the co-editor-in-chief of Journal of Micro/Nano-Mechatronics and an associate editor for the IEEE Trans. on Robotics.

Selected Journal Publications:

• 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, in press.
• E. Cheung and M. Sitti, “Adhesion of Biologically Inspired Oil-Coated Polymer Micropillars,” Journal of Adhesion Science and Technology, in press.
• B. Behkam and M. Sitti, “Bacterial Integrated Swimming Microrobots,” Lecture Notes on Computer Science, in press.
• 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. 161905-07, 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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. 61906-8, July 2007.  Also appeared on the Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science & Technology, vol. 16, no. 8, August 20, 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, pp. AB91-AB91, Apr. 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.
• 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.
• 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.  Also appeared on the Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science & Technology, vol. 15, no. 2, January 15, 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. 26911-13, 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, July 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, Oct. 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, issue: 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.
• K. Castelino, S. Satyanarayana, and M. Sitti, "Manufacturing Two- and Three-Dimensional Micro/Nanostructures by Integrating Optical Tweezers with Chemical Assembly," Robotica, vol. 23, pp. 435-439, 2005.
• M. Sitti, "Nanotribological characterization system by AFM probe based controlled pushing," IEEE/ASME Trans. on Mechatronics, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 343-349, June 2004.
• M. Sitti and H. Hashimoto, "Teleoperated touch feedback of surfaces at the nanoscale: Modeling and experiments," IEEE/ASME Trans. on Mechatronics, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 287-298, June 2003.
• M. Sitti and R. S. Fearing, "Synthetic gecko foot-hair micro/nano-structures as dry adhesives," Journal of Adhesion Science and Technology, vol. 17, no. 8, pp. 1055-1074, June 2003. 
• M. Sitti, B. Aruk, K. Shintani, and H. Hashimoto, "Scaled teleoperation system for nanoscale interaction and manipulation," Advanced Robotics, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 275-291, 2003.
• M. Sitti, "Piezoelectrically actuated four-bar mechanism with two flexible links for micromechanical flying insect thorax," IEEE/ASME Trans. on Mechatronics, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 26-36, March 2003.
• D. Campolo, M. Sitti, and R.S. Fearing, "Efficient charge recovery method for driving piezoelectric actuators in low power applications," IEEE Trans. on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control, vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 237-244, March 2003.
• K. Autumn, M. Sitti, Y. A. Liang, A. Peattie, W. Hansen, S. Sponberg, T. Kenny, R. Fearing, J. Israelachvili & R. J. Full, "Evidence for van der Waals attachment for geckos," Proc. Nat. Acad. Science, vol. 99, no. 19, pp. 12252-12256, September 17, 2002.
• J. Yan, M. Dickinson, J. Birch, M. Sitti, T. Su, and R. Fearing, "Wing transmission for a micro- mechanical flying insect," Journal of Micromechatronics, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 221-237, 2002.
• M. Sitti and H. Hashimoto, "Controlled pushing of nanoparticles: Modeling and experiments," IEEE/ASME Trans. on Mechatronics, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 199-211, 2000.
• M. Sitti and H. Hashimoto, "Two-dimensional fine particle positioning under optical microscope using a piezoresistive cantilever as a manipulator," Journal of Micromechatronics, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 25-48, 2000.
• M. Sitti and H. Hashimoto, "Tele-nanorobotics using atomic force microscope as a robot and sensor," Advanced Robotics, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 417-436, 1999.