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Mobile robot that moves based the same principle as a spider’s legs
Spiders are very agile, and some can even jump. They owe this capability to their hydraulically operated limbs. Researchers have now designed a Mobile Robot modeled on the same principle that moves spider legs. Created using a 3-D printing process, this lightweight can explore terrain that is beyond human reach.
The Fraunhofer Institute in Germany have designed a mobile robot that moves based the same principle as a spider’s legs, according to a press release issued by the institute on Wednesday Nov 02, 2011.
Enviably agile and purposeful, the mobile robot makes its way through grounds rendered off-limits to humans as the result of a chemical accident. Depressions, ruts and other obstacles are no match for this eight-legged high-tech journeyman. Its mission: with a camera and measurement equipment on board, it will provide emergency responders with an image of the situation on the ground, along with any data about poisonous substances. Not an easy task; after all, it must be prevented from tipping over.
But this risk seems a minor one as it confidently and reliably picks its way through the area. As a real spider would, it keeps four legs on the ground at all times while the other four turn and ready themselves for the next step. Even in its appearance, this artificial articulate creature resembles an octopod. And no wonder – the natural specimen provided the model for researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA.
This high-tech assistant is still a prototype, but future plans envision its use as an exploratory tool in environments that are too hazardous for humans, or too difficult to get to. After natural catastrophes and Industrial or reactor accidents, or in fire department sorties, it can help responders, for instance by broadcasting live images or tracking down hazards or leaking gas.
The design is based on the way spiders have organic, hydraulically operated bellows drives that serve as joints. Without muscles, they build up high body pressure and then pump fluid into their limbs, which extends them.
The lightweight robot, which is small, white and shaped like a spider, uses a similar system of movement, and has been designed to make its way through terrain that is too inhospitable for humans, like areas rendered off-limits due to chemical accidents.
British scientists have created a robot whose design is inspired by the toe hairs of the gecko. The robot weighs 240 grams and has tracks that are covered with dry microfibres, and could potentially scale walls and ceilings. According to the British research journal Smart Materials and Structure, the robot's tracks are coated in mushroom-shaped caps of polymer microfibres that are 0.017mm wide and 0.01mm high. In comparison, human hair is around 0.1 mm thick.
Scientists at Stanford have developed a robot using a similar approach, but with microfibres on feet instead of tracks
