By Devanshi Saxena
Cockroaches, those ubiquitous household pests, are despised for their association with unhygienic conditions. These insects rarely conjure up the warm, inspiring feelings of innovation, but the manner in which they find their way around obstacles provides resourceful insights into the future of the robotic movement. The insect that was apparently of no use is inspiring robotics engineers to duplicate its form of movement in order to improve upon the motor ability of robots.
Limitations of conventional humanoid robots
According to popular belief, most sophisticated robots are designed in a humanoid form. However, the major flaw associated with this prototype is movement and this becomes apparent when the robots are made to walk. These androids may resemble humans in their exterior appearance but hardly come close to human-like movement. This happens because of a tricky design pattern that cannot be easily emulated in robots. Therefore, researchers are working on methods to harness the precise body build of cockroaches to create robots that duplicate the insect’s flexibility.
An impressive feature of cockroach movement is that they can run as fast through a quarter-inch gap as they can through a half-inch gap by reorienting their legs. When running freely, cockroaches are about half an inch tall but have the exceptional ability to compress their bodies to one-tenth of an inch when facing an obstruction.
Various studies have been done to decipher the way cockroaches overcome obstacles. One comprehensive study into this mechanism describes the process by which this is accomplished: Cockroaches running at over 1 m per second transition from the floor to a vertical wall within 75 ms by using their head like an automobile bumper, mechanically mediating the manoeuvre.
Practical applications
The robots being modelled on cockroaches are specifically targeted to be able to navigate a wall. According to the researchers, this new use is expected to revolutionise the next generation of running, climbing, and flying robots where the use of the body can off-load the demand for rapid sensing and actuation. The secret of the new robot design lies in an exoskeleton that allows the machine to ‘perceive’ its path ahead and adjust its movement. Relying on the mechanics of the body instead of the sensors to control the robots movements is the basis of the researchers work.
Cockroach-inspired robots have been designed to deal primarily with search-and-rescue operations. Robotics engineers have been working for years on perfecting robots that can safely squeeze through rubble and debris after disasters like earthquakes or landslides. The idea is to use swarms of cockroach-like robots fitted with cameras, microphones and other sensors for the rescue missions. These robots could also be used to test the stability of remaining debris, which would allow rescuers to plan their operations around physical obstacles.
However, these studies are still in the early stages. The latest findings of the researchers at Johns Hopkins are the subject of two research papers published in the journal Bioinspiration & Biomimetics.
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