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Cockroach-Like Robot to Help Explain Animal Movement

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the on-all-sixes dept.

neutron_p writes "A cockroach-like robot named RHex is the starting point for a major project to understand animals' most distinguishing trait: how they move without falling over. Researchers from several universities will focus on RHex, a short, six-legged robot that scampers like a cockroach, as a working model of the principles they're seeking to uncover. By tweaking the robot and using it as a physical model, they hope to tease apart the complex neural and muscular networks in insects."

11 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Easy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Already been done!

    The best way to study their movement is to mount railguns on them, and fire them at random, confusing the hell out of the little guys...don't believe me?

    http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/205/18/ 1803/i

    Check out the picture!

  2. Re:I work on this... by feelyoda · · Score: 4, Informative

    also, you can get more info here:
    http://www.rhex.net/

    look for the great video of the tumble from a pile of boulders, which doesn't seem to be a problem.

    I wish I could see ASIMO take a fall like that...and watch the subsequent execution of the grad student who let it happen.

    --

    Robo-Blogs of the world: UNITE!
  3. RHex Web Page by bluewee · · Score: 2, Informative

    RHex Page

    --
    [blue] - The Ministry of Information approved this message...
  4. Rodney Brooks said it best by lawpoop · · Score: 4, Informative
    When an ant walks, it's falling over all the time. The trick is that it catches itself with its legs.

    You can get a load of his work from the documentary Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control.

    --
    Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
    -- Pablo Picasso
  5. More on Bob Full by jwgoerlich · · Score: 3, Informative

    This is really old news. RHex has been around for at least a few years now.

    Bob Full is one of the lead scientists on the RHex project. His biomimetic approach is amazing. See the following link for one of his lectures.

    Robert Full: "Bipedal bugs, galloping ghosts and gripping geckos: BioInspiration for Rapid Running Robots"
    http://www.princeton.edu/WebMedia/lectures/

    J Wolfgang Goerlich

    1. Re:More on Bob Full by MrEd · · Score: 2, Informative
      Definitely old news, the legs on RHex have evolved a long way from the 'bar' style shown on the article photo.

      The new, new, new design is now a semicircular length of rubber-treaded fibreglass, which means they have spring to them. In fact when one leg finally snaps they have to replace all six as the robot depends on them to be balanced in stiffness.

      Using these legs they get some great dynamic stability as shown in 'turbo mode' and other showoff moves plus pronking, etc.


      The coolest are the round legs with the adjustable radius - stand up, sit down, roll, jump...

      --

      Wah!

  6. Not the only people doing this sort of thing by Dachannien · · Score: 4, Informative

    Read about competitive work here.

  7. Re:I work on this... by Danny+Rathjens · · Score: 2, Informative
    The basic problem in perception is dealing with the drastic motions.

    I saw a show on animal channel the other day that was about the fastest runners. Number one was the tiger beetle. What struck me is that the reason it runs in short bursts is that its perception system can't keep up with all the input. So it has to keep stopping to get its bearings. Roaches are very fast too, and they use this same method of short bursts and stops. (which has the added benefit of making them harder to stomp. :)

    Another example of this inability to perceive too much movement input is the funky neck movements many ducks make while moving to hold their eyes still.

  8. Re:I work on this... by feelyoda · · Score: 2, Informative

    actually roaches are probably cleaner than you...

    most poisons work because they touch them, and then clearn their feet constantly...

    that said, they do carry disease

    --

    Robo-Blogs of the world: UNITE!
  9. Most japanese bipeds use ZMP, not static stability by chr1973 · · Score: 2, Informative

    I know for certain that not all japanese bipeds use static stability. Bipeds from Honda and Sony (and most of them IMHO) use something called zero moment point (ZMP). The japanese biped robot WL-10RD used this as early as in 1984. Here's a reference I just found: ZERO-MOMENT POINT THIRTY FIVE YEARS OF ITS LIFE by Vukobratovic and Borovac. Should be good since Vukobratovic introduced the concept in the 70s. PS. I did my PhD thesis on control and balance of legged locomotion.

  10. Re:$30M for more insect robots? Sounds like pork. by CGP314 · · Score: 2, Informative

    People don't explode in a vacuum


    -Colin