Click beetles can jump without the aid of their limbs when they are tipped onto their backsides. A team of University of Illinois researchers are examining this mechanism to engineer self-righting robots.
Credit: Photo by L. Brian Stauffer
From this ignominious beginning, click beetles rise to the forefront of technology. There's really nothing to add to that since it seems crazy all the way 'round the block.
Robots perform many tasks that humans can't or don't want to perform, getting around on intricately designed wheels and limbs. If they tip over, however, they are rendered almost useless. A team of University of Illinois mechanical engineers and entomologists are looking to click beetles, who can right themselves without the use of their legs, to solve this robotics challenge.
Science Daily: Click beetles inspire design of self-righting robots
There were was a primitive robo for delivering mail in my last workplace. It looked like super tech but really it was following a painted trail in invisible ink which was only visible under ultraviolet light. There was a problem with that trail since walking on in in the hallway it shared with people would disperse the trail and then it would lose it's mind, possibly crashing into something or just getting stuck.
Even a click beetle wouldn't have helped such a robo and people thought it was funny due to the mishaps. Ha, ha, look at high tech fall on its face. Ha, ha.
The robos which will use the new technology and capable of independent motion and the interest is in keeping them from fall but finding a solution for when they do.
"This idea came to life when a group of insect physiology students decided to take a closer look at what makes click beetles jump as part of a class project," said department of entomology research scientist and study co-author Marianne Alleyne.
The beetles have a unique hinge-like mechanism between their heads and abdomens that makes a clicking sound when initiated and allows them to flip into the air and back onto their feet when they are knocked over, Alleyne said.
"Very little research had been performed on these beetles, and I thought this legless jumping mechanism would be a perfect candidate for further exploration in the field of bioinspiration," said Alleyne, who teaches a bioinspiration design course with mechanical sciences and engineering professor, co-author and lead investigator Aimy Wissa.
- SD
Bioinspiration is another unusual portmanteau among many but this one has a more compelling sense to it since they're drawing major inspiration from these creatures.
The interest these beetles command from the researchers is most interesting.
"Each insect goes through an assembly line of analyses that involve basic characterization, high-speed filming to observe the jump and measurements in the Materials Tribiology Lab with co-author and mechanical sciences and engineering professor Alison Dunn, to determine how much force it takes to overcome the friction of the hinge within an individual beetles jumping mechanism," Wissa said. "We observe, model and validate each stage of the jump with the hopes that we can later integrate them into a self-righting robot."
- SD
With this research they work in concert with engineers, exchanging back and forth information how to make this real they have built some prototypes already.
I thought the image was kind of cool since we see AI robos in sci fi movies quite frequently but we don't see them falling over. It's somewhat odd to think they're even capable of falling over since they're so damn clever but of course they can due to unpredictable events or some such. The idea of that super-sophisticated robo making some clicking sound to pop right back to his robo feet again.
No comments:
Post a Comment