Caterpillar Crawl Could Inspire Robots Design

As worms move, so might robots

Scientists scrutinize their locomotion with an eye toward making soft-bodied mechanical beings for sophisticated tasks in tough spots

Tufts University researchers are studying tobacco hornworm caterpillars for clues about how to build robots inspired by nature.

[...] a paper published online in Current Biology described the use of powerful X-rays of a caterpillar crawling on a treadmill to reveal that, bizarrely, a caterpillar’s innards thrust forward before the rest of its body when it crawls, perhaps helping it to move.

Collected from: As worms move, so might robots - The Boston Globe

Science Nation - Creeping, Crawling Caterpillars

Collected from: YouTube - Science Nation - Creeping, Crawling Caterpillars

 

Caterpillars Move Guts-First

• Caterpillars crawl using a "two-body" system of locomotion never seen before.
• Caterpillar guts slide forward before other parts of the insect move.
• This form of locomotion is inspiring new designs for soft-bodied robots.

Caterpillars move gut-first, new X-ray research shows.

Collected from: Caterpillars Move Guts-First : Discovery News

Research

The neural control of soft-bodied locomotion

Most of our understanding of animal movements is based on creatures with stiff skeletons such as humans, dogs, birds and cockroaches. However many animals do not have hard skeletons and we know relatively little about how they control their bodies. Our model system is the caterpillar, Manduca sexta which does not have joints to restrict movements. They can crumple, compress and rotate body parts with virtually unlimited freedom. We are trying to understand how the nervous system interacts with tissues to controls these complex movements.

Using these findings we are also designing and building new types of flexible robots. The challenge is to create a comprehensive set of engineering tools so that soft materials can be controlled reliably in any moving device.

This is new field of Soft Material Robotics. Such robots could be used to navigate through pipelines or intricate structures such as blood vessels and air tubes. Learn more >

Collected from: Trimmer Laboratory: Neurobiology and Neuromechanics - Tufts University

Visceral-Locomotory Pistoning in Crawling Caterpillars

Collected from: YouTube - Visceral-Locomotory Pistoning in Crawling Caterpillars

Visceral-Locomotory Pistoning in Crawling Caterpillars

Current Biology, 22 July 2010

Authors

Michael A. Simonsend, William A. Woods, Yevgeniy V. Serebrenik, Sharotka M. Simon, Linnea I. van Griethuijsen, John J. Socha, Wah-Keat Lee, Barry A. Trimmer

Highlights

• The gut in crawling Manduca sexta caterpillars moves independently of the body wall
• This visceral-locomotory pistoning offers evidence for a nonlinear elastic gut
• This two-bodied biomechanical system is a novel finding in animal locomotion

Collected from: Current Biology - Visceral-Locomotory Pistoning in Crawling Caterpillars

Sources

As worms move, so might robots - The Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2010/07/26/as_worms_move_so_might_robots/
YouTube - Science Nation - Creeping, Crawling Caterpillars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM0crDOGm2w&feature=related
Caterpillars Move Guts-First : Discovery News
http://news.discovery.com/animals/caterpillar-locomotion-crawl.html
Trimmer Laboratory: Neurobiology and Neuromechanics - Tufts University
http://ase.tufts.edu/biology/labs/trimmer/research/
YouTube - Visceral-Locomotory Pistoning in Crawling Caterpillars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auiVLqaIJbo
Current Biology - Visceral-Locomotory Pistoning in Crawling Caterpillars
http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(10)00807-9

Related

Trimmer Laboratory: Neurobiology and Neuromechanics - Tufts University
http://ase.tufts.edu/biology/labs/trimmer/
Caterpillar Crawl Could Inspire New Robots | Science and Technology | English
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/science-technology/Caterpillar-Crawl-Could-Inspire-New-Robotic-Designs-99545754.html
Gut Check: How Do Caterpillars Walk? : NPR
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128695206
Gut movements in caterpillars inspire soft-body robot design (w/ Video)
http://www.physorg.com/news199007129.html
Observatory - New Insight Into a Caterpillar’s Crawl - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/27/science/27obslither.html?_r=2
How Did the Caterpillar Cross the Road?
http://www.aps.anl.gov/News/APS_News/Content/APS_NEWS_20100727.php

Runbot World's Fastest Robot

Clipped from: World's Fastest Robot -- Computational Neuroscientists And Engineers Build Robot That Teaches Itself To Walk Up And Down Hills

World's Fastest Robot

Computational Neuroscientists And Engineers Build Robot That Teaches Itself To Walk Up And Down Hills

December 1, 2007 — Computational neuroscientists designed a robot that teaches itself how to walk on differing terrain. The RunBot uses an infrared eye to detect slopes, and adjusts its gait for the smoothest walk. From repeated attempts it matches the degree of slope to the appropriate length of step and movement of joints. Essentially, the robot learns to walk on uneven ground in the same way as a child.

Clipped from: YouTube - The Runbot - Worlds Fastest Robot

Clipped from: BBC NEWS | Technology | Robot unravels mystery of walking

Robot unravels mystery of walking

Roboticists are using the lessons of a 1930s human physiologist to build the world's fastest walking robot.

[...]

The basic walking steps of RunBot, which has been built by scientists co-operating across Europe, are controlled by reflex information received by peripheral sensors on the joints and feet of the robot, as well as an accelerometer which monitors the pitch of the machine.

These sensors pass data on to local neural loops - the equivalent of local circuits - which analyse the information and make adjustments to the gait of the robot in real time.

Clipped from: YouTube - Robot keeps marching with multi-level control

Robot keeps marching with multi-level control

Clipped from: Runbot

Adaptive, Fast, Dynamic Walking Robot "RunBot"

I Biomechanical level: The walker requires an appropriate biomechanical design, which may use some principles of passive walkers to assure stability.

II Spinal reflex level: Runbot needs a low-level neuronal structure (Reflexive Neuronal Controller), which creates dynamically stable gaits with some degree of self-stabilization to assure basic robustness.

III Postural reflex level: RunBot requires higher levels of neuronal control (adaptive neuronal controller), which can learn using peripheral sensing to assure flexibility of the walker in different terrains.

RunBot performance:

Comparison of the walking speed of various biped robots whose sizes, they are quite different from each other, we use the relative speed

Speed divided by the leg-length. The figure below shows the relative speed of some typical planar biped robots, RunBot, and human.

Clipped from: YouTube - Runbot running

Clipped from: Poramate Manoonpong BCCN-at MPI

Poramate Manoonpong
Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience

Related:
World's Fastest Robot -- Computational Neuroscientists And Engineers Build Robot That Teaches Itself To Walk Up And Down Hills
BBC NEWS | Technology | Robot unravels mystery of walking
Poramate Manoonpong BCCN-at MPI
Runbot
PLoS Computational Biology: Adaptive, Fast Walking in a Biped Robot under Neuronal Control and Learning
iiRobotics.com | Robot unravels mystery of walking | Robot, Said, Runbot, Walking, Leg
Speedy robot legs it to break record - tech - 05 April 2006 - New Scientist
BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Glasgow and West | Record speed set by walking robot