Robust Highly Mobile Biomimetic Microrobots in Aerial, Terrestrial, and Aquatic Environments
Speaker: Robert J. Wood , Harvard University
Date: November 9 2006
Time: 4:00PM to 5:00PM
Location: 32-D463 (Star)
Host: Daniela Rus, MIT-CSAIL
Contact: Mieke Moran, 617-253-5817, mieke@csail.mit.edu
Relevant URL: http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~rjwoodAbstract:
For untethered and autonomous applications, the relative performance of a robotic system, whether defined by capability or robustness, has a strong dependence on three characteristics of the system: the agent's intelligence, mobility, and multiplicity. The effect of intelligence is straightforward: the greater the intelligence of a robotic agent, the better it will be able to perceive its environment, communicate with other agents and end users, and make more robust decisions in general. The mobility of a robotic agent is an equally important metric. For example, an agent with a vast intelligence that cannot maneuver over minor obstacles will ultimately be confined to modestly defined regions. Multiplicity will inevitably increase a system's robustness to environmental changes and agent failures. Moreover, multiplicity also increases the capability of the system. For example, two agents perceiving the same object from different vantage points (due to physical separation) may extract more information about the structure than a single agent acting alone. My research has the goal of creating robust swarms of exceedingly mobile microrobotic agents. These agents will take on three forms: (1) flapping wing micro air vehicles for aerial environments, (2) ambulatory microrobots for terrestrial environments, and (3) microrobotic fish for aquatic environments. The mobility of these agents is emphasized and will be enhanced by convolving locomotion capabilities between aerial, terrestrial, and aquatic environments. The control of these microrobots will assume a subsumption architecture encompassing stability, individual behaviors, and group behavior. As a launching point, biological insights will inspire novel solutions to many facets of microrobot creation and behavior. At no point does this research intend to completely recreate detailed biological systems; some aspects of biological systems, when considered in the context of evolutionary adaptation, are clearly inappropriate for robotic systems. Inherent in this study, however, is the impending impact upon biomechanics studies, as this research will eventually come full circle from bio-inspiration, through biomimetic design and implementation, finally yielding insights into otherwise complex biological systems.
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