When a human falls, basic survival instincts kick in to curb the body and minimize damage and protect crucial body parts. On impact, the arms go around the head to protect the brain. After all, a broken arm can be fixed more easily than a broken brain.
Videos of robots falling on their faces and backs have become sort of amusing. While the impact is not exactly "deadly" the way it is for humans, this doesn't mean robots are not susceptible to damage. With advancements in engineering, researchers have found ways to mimic nature's basic instincts.
Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology came up with a new algorithm that allows robots to "fall" like humans and protect crucial robot parts.
Professor Karen Liu and doctoral graduate Sehoon Ha programmed robots to react to tripping, falling and even tumbling.
"We believe robots can learn how to fall safely. Our work unified existing research about how to teach robots to fall by giving them a tool to automatically determine the total number of contacts (how many hands shoved it, for example), the order of contacts, and the position and timing of those contacts. All of that impacts the potential of a fall and changes the robot's response," said Ha.
Biomimicry or biomimetics is the simulation of systems, elements and models of nature to solve multifaceted human problems. Scientists continue to develop nature-inspired robots through biomimetics. Here are a few examples:
The RoboClam
Inspired by the Atlantic razor clam, this small robot can bury anchors and terminate underwater mines by digging itself into the ground like a razor clam. Developed by Amos Winter from MIT, this robot can dig a hole into the ground at high speed using little energy.
The Tabot
Spiders, at least robotic ones, could soon inhabit Mars. German bionics engineer Ingo Rechenberg proposed a cartwheeling robot inspired by the Moroccan spider. The spider's natural acrobatic techniques have been programmed into the robot, Tabot, to navigate Mars' rough surface at the walking speed of 3.3 feet a second.
DALER
Make way for the "bat-robot." DALER, which stands for Deployable Air-Land Exploration Robot, is a walking and flying robot patterned after vampire bats. It is designed for search and rescue operations in various terrains. Airborne, DALER can fly at 45mph. On the ground, it can walk approximately 2.5 inches per second.
Surgical Robotic Arms
Italy's Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies created a robotic arm inspired by octopus tentacles. In a hospital setting, the robotic arm can aid surgeons in accessing parts of the body that are difficult to reach. Researchers claim that the robotic arms will limit the need for incisions and tools for surgical tasks.
Robo-Roaches
Scientists have come up with a way to put the pests to good use, or at least their ability to navigate through obstacles. Researchers from the University of California Berkeley mimicked the way cockroaches scurry their way through clutter. These robots are given top shells to look like cockroaches to help them better pilot during search and rescue operations.
