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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."
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."
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.
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.
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.
what does your robot do, sam
it collects data about the surrounding environment, then discards it and drives into walls
-Dracken
you can program it in python?
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.
Also, does it know which way is up and readjust or do you have to figure that out after it rolls?
That's exactly the kind of thing they want to use this type of robot for. They focus on rubble and similar terrain, because if it isn't hard to traverse, you might as well use wheels. Exploring mines and caves could be useful too, but urban search and rescue is a big topic now. After a disaster, you want to rescue people as fast as possible to save them, but the earlier after a collapse, the more dangerous it is for the rescuers who risk getting trapped themselves. Robots can be sent in immediately becuase you don't care much if you lose them.
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
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...
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.
The "bunch of wires" is probably because it's still a prototype. The finished product will be radiocontrolled, obviously (or at least I hope so).
Indeed, if you watch carefully, the "bunch of wires" would make the robot useless in real conditions: the wires would get tangled into the debris, and hold the contraption back, even though the robot by itself could cope. Many times in the video, you'll see the handlers rearranging that cable to make sure it doesn't get tangled anywhere.
Does it grow longer the more dots it eats?