Welcome to the Multi-Scale Robotics & Automation Lab (MSRAL) located in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University. The MSRAL performs cutting-edge research on robotic and automation systems at various length scales: macro-scale (cm to m), meso-scale (~100’s of μm to a few mm’s), micro-scale (10’s of μm to 100’s of μm), and nano-scale (nm). Research areas of focus are multi-scale robotic manipulation, automation, and assembly, mobile microrobotics, medical robotics and devices, automation for the life sciences, and micro aerial and ground vehicle design & control for agricultural and space applications.

Recent Publications

DRILL: Deployment & Reading of In-ground Low-cost Soil Moisture Logging Sensors Using an Autonomous Ground Robot.
A. Deb, J. Norwood, M. Vassilev, S. MacDonald, K. Kim, D. Cappelleri. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Vienna, Austria. Under Review, June 1-5, 2026.

Tumbling Magnetic Microrobots for Targeted In Vivo Drug Delivery in the GI Tract.
A. Davis, L. Sanjuan, S. Mehta, B. Qi, Y. Yang, L. Solorio, C.J. Goergen, D. J. Cappelleri. Advanced Robotics Research. Accepted, 2025. [ PDF ]

Physical AI for Powering the Next Revolution in Robots.
A. Banerjee, D.J. Cappelleri, S.K. Gupta, K.N. Kaipa, V.N. Krovi, A. Thakur. ASME Journal of Computing and Information Science in Engineering (JCISE). Accepted, 2025. [ PDF ]


More Publications

Research Projects

Agricultural Robotics (IoT4Ag)
Agricultural Robotics (IoT4Ag)
Microscale Tumbling Magnetic (µTUM) Microrobots for Biomedical Applications
Microscale Tumbling Magnetic (µTUM) Microrobots for Biomedical Applications
Responsive Polymer Magnetic Microrobots (RPMMs)
Responsive Polymer Magnetic Microrobots (RPMMs)
Robotics for Resilient Extraterrestrial Habitats
Robotics for Resilient Extraterrestrial Habitats

More Research Projects

News

MARSS 2025 @ Purdue!
2025-08-01 05:23:26
MSRAL @ ICRA 2025
2025-05-19 04:47:42
Farmers are using IoT to take the guesswork out of growing
2025-05-01 04:34:32
Aaron Davis defends PhD dissertation!
2025-04-04 05:58:37

More News