Mother Nature has created some pretty incredible systems, and scientists and inventors have long looked to nature for inspiration. Robots are increasingly being utilized for tasks that are repetitive or dangerous for humans to do themselves, and naturally roboticists are looking to nature to overcome some of the problems in building these devices.
A recent paper in Science turned to termites, which are able to build large mounds with complex networks of tunnels. Each individual termite works autonomously and seemingly without guidance from a “master termite” or blueprints. As early as 1995, researchers have wondered whether such autonomous behavior could be replicated by computers or robots (Theraulaz and Bonabeau, 1995). Recently, researchers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have finally successfully implemented this idea. Using liter-carton sized robots, Justin Werfel and his group programmed in the final desired structure and a series of rules. The rules did not give specific tasks to each robot, but instructed the robots how to react if the robot senses a block or another robot. As a proof-of-concept, Werfel and his team instructed three robots to build a three-pronged trident shape, which the robots were able to successfully completed in about 30 minutes. In theory, this type of collaborative work could be extended to more complex and larger structures, and with more robots, such structures could be completed even faster.
The major advantage of this type of algorithm, where no one robot is “in charge” and each robot is equally capable of completing the desired structure, is that the loss of any one robot would not halt the construction progress. If these robots were implemented for instance in disaster situations to build barriers or bridges, one would not want the success of the project to hinge on particular robots.
Another recent bio-inspired robot looked to the sea for inspiration on how to fly. Perhaps not surprisingly, it can be more difficult to design a small flying robot than a larger robot, as smaller robots can be tipped over or blown off course much more easily with changes in air flow. Dragonflies, bees and other insects have been the inspiration for many small flying robots, but Leif Ristroph and Stephen Childress of New York University decided to look to the jellyfish for inspiration. In an attempt to mimic the undulating motion of the jellyfish as it swims through the ocean, Ristroph and Childress designed small droplet shaped wings, about 5 cm wide, attached to a carbon-fibre frame. The entire device weighs about 2.1 grams, or about two paperclips, and is able to hover and fly horizontally, all the while maintaining its upright position. At this point, like the termite-inspired robots, this jellyfish robot is more a proof-of-concept device rather than something that can be used in real-world situations as is, however such a small robot could conceivably be used in the future for weather monitoring, surveillance, or even crop pollination.
Biomimetic robots are certainly not a new phenomenon, and as researchers develop more sophisticated robots to do more complex tasks, its likely they will continue to turn to creatures found in the natural world. After all, these organisms have already found a way to survive in the world, so why reinvent the wheel?
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