InspireME Seminar - Alireza Fath, Ph.D. (University of Vermont)

Robots That Explore the Places We Can't: Swarms, Microrobots, Augmented Reality, and the Future of Infrastructure Inspection

Every day, 4.9 billion vehicle trips cross America's bridges, yet the places where damage begins are dark, confined, and inaccessible to humans. Over 42,000 bridges are in poor condition, 39% of major roads are deteriorating, and dams, culverts, and underground pipes face a $3.7 trillion repair gap. This talk presents a platform of robots that go where we can't: coin-sized vibration-driven microrobots, quadruped robot dogs, wheeled tunnel robots, and wireless sensor networks, coordinated through an augmented reality headset. Running AI on the edge, these systems detect cracks, map spaces, and monitor infrastructure in real time, no internet required. From lab bench to field deployment, this talk shows how the engineering skills you are building right now are the foundation for this future.

The InspireME Series explores topics of interest in Mechanical Engineering for the Boise State community.