UC Berkeley researchers develop a Roach-inspired robot that can squeeze into tight spaces.
At times, inspiration comes from the strangest places like kitchen floors, bathtubs, and dumpsters.
Nature itself has got so many designs and scientists are mimicking them to make better robots.
They have figured out how to make robots leap over hurdles, and recover when they lose limbs.
As a result, the robot was then able to cross difficult terrain without hi-tech sensors or computational analysis.
On June 22nd, the Berkeley team published its results in the scientific journal Bioinspiration & Biomimetics.
They named the robot as Veloci-roach, apparently because a regular-speed roach wasnt scary enough.
Other robots, when faced with an opening narrower than their own size, will be pretty much trapped.
However, the Veloci-roach has an ellipsoida three-dimensional ovalshell.
This lets it tilt its body and wobble through small openings, much like a cockroach would.
Without the shell, the teams robot just bangs into the edges of tight openings.
The robot, however, does not rush away when the lights are turned on.
The studys findings were published in the journalBioinspiration & Biomimeticson June 22, 2015.
source: www.techworm.net
