Ryan St. Pierre

About

Ryan St. Pierre is a leading researcher in the field of small-scale robotics, specializing in the design, fabrication, and locomotion of sub-gram and milligram-scale terrestrial robots. His work is fundamentally inspired by the remarkable mobility of insects, aiming to create autonomous machines capable of navigating complex, confined environments for applications ranging from infrastructure inspection to medical procedures. St. Pierre’s major contributions include pioneering the use of multimaterial 3D printing and magnetic actuation to build and control some of the world’s smallest legged robots. He achieved a landmark breakthrough by demonstrating the first untethered legged microrobot to walk at over 5 body lengths per second, and later pushed this to a record-breaking 15 body lengths per second with a 1 mg robot. His highly cited work, including the foundational "Toward Autonomy in Sub-Gram Terrestrial Robots" (86 citations), has established core principles for integrating rigid and soft materials into compliant mechanisms. More recently, his "Buffalo Byte" platform showcases a highly mobile, autonomous millirobot capable of traversing natural terrain, demonstrating a clear trajectory from fundamental locomotion studies to practical, field-ready systems.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Toward Autonomy in Sub-Gram Terrestrial Robots

   86 citations · 2019
2. 2
   Multimaterial 3D Printing for Microrobotic Mechanisms

   57 citations · 2019
3. 3
   Gait Exploration of Sub-2 g Robots Using Magnetic Actuation

   47 citations · 2016
4. 4
   A 25 MG magnetically actuated microrobot walking at > 5 body lengths/sec

   44 citations · 2017
5. 5
   A 3D-PRINTED 1 MG LEGGED MICROROBOT RUNNING AT 15 BODY LENGTHS PER SECOND

   41 citations · 2018
6. 6
   3DFlex: A rapid prototyping approach for multi-material compliant mechanisms in millirobots

   11 citations · 2017
7. 7
   Controlling jumps through latches in small jumping robots

   9 citations · 2023
8. 8
   Model-Based Insights on the Design of a Hexapod Magnetic Walker

   9 citations · 2015
9. 9
   Viscoelastic legs for open-loop control of gram-scale robots

   6 citations · 2020
10. 10
    Buffalo Byte: A Highly Mobile and Autonomous Millirobot Platform

    4 citations · 2024

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links