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OmniTread: A serpentine robot
karvind writes "Physorg is running a story about OmniTread: a serpentine robot designed to traverse extremely difficult terrain, such as the rubble of a collapsed building. The 26-pound robot is developed at the University of Michigan U-M College of Engineering. It moves by rolling, log-style, or by lifting its head or tail, inchworm-like, and muscling itself forward. Link to videos. Check out there other robots as well."
Someone call Steve Irwin!
Wasn't there a serpentine robot in one of the competitions? Sounds like a fascinating idea.
6x9=42
I imagine that with more development, this could lead to subways/trains without tracks. Or, perhaps "smart" cars that "know" how to handle obstacles and avoid collisions.
Silence is golden... and duct tape is silver.
From "The In-Laws," possibly the best Peter Falk movie ever, right next to "The Great Race."
I don't get it.
From a comment posted below the article: "Arthur C. Clarke had it right --- spheres with tentacles; _that_ is the ultimate in agility and mobility, for robotic design. Plus, such units can easily link together to form a much greater whole, if required --- they could perform nearly *any* engineering, construction, or transportation task."
Am I really that unobservant or is the hardware section new?
Illegal? Samir, This is America.
Can I suggest to the editors that if you know you are linking to a video, you simply place a link to a mirror there as well.
Having said that, the site is holding up remarkably well - I've still got 14kb/s..... uh oh 13..... 12..... damn.
How modular the design is.
It is obviously made of 5 (reasonably) identical parts, but I wonder if you can (in theory) make a robot of this type as longs as you want just by `tacking' on a new section (of course this ignores drive train problems).
Badgerbadgerbadger... (C'mon -- *someone* had to say it...)
Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
It is the University of Michigan College of Engineering, or the UMCOE, or engin.umich.edu. It is, under no circumstances, the University of Michigan UM College of Engineering.
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Mod me down, you fucking twits. Go ahead. I dare you.
(I read with sigs off.)
Their other robots are there. They're amazing.
...but I'm sure we will soon. Everyone should check out this rad 7min video of this thing in action. Very cool. =)
"Quoting famous computer scientists out of context is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming." - K
I have always wondered why robotics engineering has not taken more approaches using memory-shape alloys. Mondo-tronics has a product called Muscle Wire that has carbon or graphite embedded in the alloy so that it heats up when an electric current is applied. This causes the Nitinol to contract as the alloy returns to its "memory" shape.
Really the only thing I have seen using this form of memory-shape alloys is just for hobbyist projects, nothing serious. Granted there are some problems to overcome, such as duty cycles and heat dissipation. But most of these could be solved, I have looked into them. On larger scale projects the cost could be prohibitive though.
The value as I see memory-shape alloys over motors, is that it is almost a solid-state actuator. There really is no moving parts that can wear, other than the alloy itself. And these memory-shape alloys have a very high force/weight ratio - thus making the bulk of most robotics not a function of locomotion.
Id Like to know the possible purposes of these robots, like with the example of crawling through rubble, it makes me think of a robot searching for people after an earthquake, getting to places we couldnt, anyone else get any impressions like that?
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. - HHGTTG
remember to remove the spaces
ed2k://|file|OmniTread.SwRI-7min.320x240 x30.wmv|39219440|00C932FF9AD4D798E92C05D9869EE323
Only the treads that are touching the ground should
move. The others moving in air are wasted motion. That does not seem efficient.
"Physorg is running a story about OmniTread: a serpentine robot designed to traverse extremely difficult terrain, such as the rubble of a collapsed building."
I thought Remote control mice were taking that job.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
what does your robot do, sam
it collects data about the surrounding environment, then discards it and drives into walls
-Dracken
They need to send this baby over the to the disaster area that is my room. First mission: Pick up my underwear and clothes that need washing. It'll probably break down under that kind of stress though.
"Tremors" comes to mind as well.
Oh please, there is no robot design possible with a simple singular traction system that is virtually unstoppable. There are many many area where such a robot with a snake-like tread structure will simple be unable to get anywhere at all. I would be impressed if there was a use for anything but reconnaisance from a robot that can deal with as many situations as this one supposedly can however.
you can program it in python?
Somebody fill out a requisition for the Batterylife Activator!
"There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell them." ~ Louis Armstrong
Quite possibly the worst design used in that competition. It looked cool, but was as useless as tits on a boar hog.
-1? WTF? I thought SCO jokes were "in" this year. Oh well, back to MSFT bashing...
This is more like a caterpillar than a snake. It uses tracks all over its body (like many small feet), rather than a serpentine motion to propel itself. Props though, as this seems far more practical than robots that actually try to move like snakes or inchworms.
I've sat through many talks about modular robots that are supposed to be able to do everything, yet rarely do anything well at all (I come from a lab doing what I guess you'd call "specialized monolithic" robots). I think this robot is just specialized enough to be useful (using its treads). The walking snake like robots are normally agonizingly slow, but this robot moves at a reasonable speed for the type of applications you'd need it for. Also, tracks should scale up in speed reasonably well if needed.
Really, can this even be called a robot any more than a cheap assed wired remote control car can?
When I saw this, the first thing I thought was how nice a large version of this could be. It seems like it would be suitable for something like the DARPA Grand Challenge. http://www.darpagrandchallenge.com/
Also, does it know which way is up and readjust or do you have to figure that out after it rolls?
Regards,
John
Falling You - beautiful
http://www.scrubbles.net/mead/mead12.html
I came across this a few days ago, seemed vaguely related conceptually.
--ikp
Snakebots are very fragile. Many times a section would break after a few hours demostration. Jer was working on making each section more modular and easier to build. Apparently the main goal of snakebots for many research labs are for providing demostrations (read: grantbots) and giving new grad students something to do. ;-)
It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do.
- Jerome Klapka Jerome
http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~johannb/me_ju mp1.jpg
i have yet to have this professor.
"Or, perhaps "smart" cars that "know" how to handle obstacles and avoid collisions."
Lord knows the drivers certainly can't.
A one-time BattleBot that was run in Vegas by one of the guys at ILM. It was designed like a snake and was very capable of moving around just like one (with a nice little "rattler" to boot). While it could move around, the problem with the design is that there is little you can do with it. I'm curious as to how utilities and other devices could be attached to make this useful. I suppose small cameras and lights could be implemented, making it somewhat useful for rescue missions.
Check out Xerox PARC's PolyBot; each segment contains its own motor and PowerPC processor. This was on Slashdot some time ago.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
Almost everything they learned making the robot has been patented. So do the students who worked to create this robot end up paying the college to patent the research they performed? Do College's have patent contracts boilerplate on student applications now?
Such position looks as if it would only be possible if "head" is substantially heavyer than "tail" (or else it would tip backwards). However, the doc states that the middle segment is the heavyest. Or does it also have the means of pumping liquid for one end segment to the other to achieve more optimal weight distribution? In any case, if such feature exist, it isn't mentioned anywhere...
I, for one, welcome our new serpentine robot overlords.
Hah.
No, you probably won't. COE at Michigan has what is technically termed "phat pipe", and the main web servers are more than capable of handling your piddly little Slashdot attack.
YOU ARE HITTING THE MAIN WEBSERVERS FOR A 40,000 STUDENT UNIVERSITY WITH 10,000 ENGINEERING STUDENTS. Slashdotting? Unlikely. It'd be like slashdotting Sun.
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Mod me down, you fucking twits. Go ahead. I dare you.
(I read with sigs off.)
it's hard not to be a little disappointed with the state of robot technology. We've landed a man on the moon, split the atom, and decoded our genes, yet we're supposed to be impressed by a (human-controlled) robot that can crawl like a caterpillar.
Don't get me wrong. I realize this is a step forward, but the current state of robots seems so behind others.
It works like a tire touching a road.
Hehe, I am sleeping on the "phat pipe" its fun. :) very warm. about body temperature.
Gravity Sucks
I couldn't access the article now, so I can only base this on the comments and the post, but... is this realy new?
I mean: http://www.snakerobots.com/main.htm
or am missing out on something from TFA? =)
The robotic snake offered a woman working on the project a robotic apple...
and you see pictures of it crossing specially made obstacles, that just fit it's capabilitys, or a video about it crossing a railroad and some siple rocks
and the foto's with some bricks on the ground aren't really impressive either....
Does it grow longer the more dots it eats?
Over 100 comments so far and I, for one, am the first to welcome our new serpentine robot overlords?
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Wow baby, real 3D snake gaming !! Now if only they could make these humanoid robots a bit faster and cheap, and we can all play Doom 3D!
Not sure I'd call that action serpentine. Real serpents use the classic tetrapod evolution, or else a kind of peristaltic slip and glide inside skin. The robot version looks like something that would have died suddenly during the Cambrian.
``Tension, apprehension & dissension have begun!'' - Duffy Wyg&, in Alfred Bester's _The Demolished Man_
These treads prevent the snakebot from stalling or becoming stuck on rough terrain because, similar to a tire touching a road, t the treads propel the robot forward like a tire touching a road. Historically, scientists haven't had much success with wheeled and tracked robots on rough terrain because they constantly stall.
Flout 'em and scout 'em,
and scout 'em and flout 'em;
Thought is free. - Shakespeare [The Tempest]
there - location
their - belongs to them
gah! please, pretty please, try to remember this.