Lee S. Tavrow

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Intel (United States)

Papers

Total Citations

292

H-Index

About

Lee S. Tavrow is a pioneering researcher in the field of microrobotics and piezoelectric actuation, whose work in the late 1980s and early 1990s helped lay the groundwork for microscale robotic systems. His most celebrated contribution, "Piezoelectric Micromotors for Microrobots," has accumulated over 270 citations across multiple publication iterations, demonstrating sustained influence in the field of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS). Tavrow's research focused on developing ultrasonic motors using ferroelectric thin films deposited on silicon wafers, enabling the fabrication of stator components for motors just millimeters in diameter. By harnessing traveling waves generated within these stator structures, his designs allowed small objects — such as glass lenses — to function as spinning rotors, circumventing traditional limitations of electromagnetic motors at the microscale. His early conceptual work, captured in the imaginatively titled "Twilight Zones and Cornerstones: A Gnat Robot Double Feature" (1989), envisioned cheap, disposable, and fully autonomous microrobots long before such ideas became mainstream. Tavrow's contributions represent a formative chapter in the development of miniaturized robotic systems, blending materials science, microfabrication, and robotics in genuinely novel ways.