Biomimetic Robots: A Photo Gallery

Roland Piquepaille writes "Once again, technology is imitating nature with a new class of biologically inspired robots called "Biomimetic Robots." In this very long article, IEEE Computer Magazine looks at several projects currently underway. All these projects will have practical applications a few years from now. They include robotic lobsters for underwater mine research or flying insect-based robots for future spatial missions. Other projects are about cricket-inspired robots to be used in rescue missions or scorpion-like robots to be deployed in hostile environments for humans. and of course, there are the now famous and robust "sprawling" robots based on cockroaches. For more information, read the whole very well documented article. Or read this summary for a photo gallery and direct links to all the projects."

Comments

Wow

[metlin]

"We are not trying to 'copy a cockroach.' This would be impractical. And besides, who would want one?"

About bloody time that roboticists realized that it's easier to treat robots as independent entities of research, rather than model them on what we know about this world.

And oh, about BLOODY time we have a Roland Piquepaille section. Tiresome to keep bumping into his stuff on every other article.

Re:Wow

[luvirini]

You have to remember that in nature we are talking about solutions that have actually been tested to work. So taking general concepts from allready tested things is a good way to shorten your prototyping time.

The only part of robotics that actually has a good set of working solutions is the industrial robots. For all other branches of robotics we are still in quite early stages, where the number or working, let alone good, solutions inside the science is quite low.

Ofcourse in the end robotics is quite different from the source of inspiration, but the basic design decisions have to be based on something.

Complex Adaptive Systems

[Anonymous Coward]

Since biological "robots" (living creatures) seem to be a complex adaptive system it seems like a good idea to try to emulate that instead of trying to reason things out via rules, etc.

That is to say, living creatures are systems within systems, upon systems, encasing systems. It's like systems debauchery.

Back Ground information

[Mstrgeek]

Here are some good site with some more information anout this type of robotics hope you enjoy

http://www-cdr.stanford.edu/biomimetics/

http://www.neurotechnology.neu.edu/

http://www.computer.org/computer/homepage/0904/p au lson/r9048.pdf

Above is a PDF with good information

Better eating conditions for researchers!

[Ingolfke]

"[the researchers] draw their inspiration from... the robustness of the cockroach."

researchers are looking in the cupboards of their local diners

Typical researcher... sees a cockroach running across the filthy floor of his local diner and thinks "Eureka! I should make a robot that moves like a cockroach", all the while ingesting the roaches larvae, embedded in his day-old chili.

Cricket-inspired robots - Noooooo!

[Zukix]

Evil white robots intent on rebuilding the Wicket gate and destroying the universe?

For the love all things froodish - no!

IEEE more than a name

[MosesJones]

As an IEEE member and contributor I'd urge anyone who is actually serious about Computing to join as well. There are regularly articles in Computing and Software that act as great arguments against PHBs and also which challenge perceptions you may currently hold.

When there is an article in the IEEE about Wi-MAX or equivalent its by the chaps writing the standard and building the industry. Where there is an acticle on productivity its actually a proper study rather than a slashdot poll (not that slashdot is ever a biased source of course!).

Join the IEEE, join the computer society. Sure it means you have to not buy a new graphics card in this half of the year, but it could help your career.

I'm not on a commitee or anything, I'm just a member and its well worth the money IMO.

Re:Biomimetics, why?

[hypnotik]

How useful is a car in rocky terrain? Or in a dense forest? Or on sandy soil?

For that matter, how useful are wheels on any terrain other than fairly wide, even surfaces? Cheetahs don't have wheels because going 60mph over rough, uneven terrain is impractical. And we won't even talk about the agility of a cheetah compared to the agility of a car.

Building robots to mimic biology is a way of making robots more robust, better able to deal with unexpected or uneven terrain, and just all round more useful. The concept isn't that hard.