Centipede robots: New technology could save humans from earthquakes

A new technology based on the anatomy of centipedes could be an effective solution for helping victims of natural disasters like earthquakes. The idea, developed by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the USA, is based on a fundamental principle: Unlike human movement, that of arthropods is not dominated by inertia..

According to the study’s lead author, Daniel Goldman, “If [as centopeias] If they stop moving their body parts and limbs, they basically stop moving instantly. They live in a world different from our world of action.” concludes with a press release.

According to research, the advantage of this is to move on rough terrain. — for both humans and robots — Requests detailed feedback by agents to “compensate for cracks, slopes or changes in surface composition” allowing for timely corrections.

Why centipedes?

Centipedes, also known as centipedes, are primitive arthropods that are relatives of insects. They get this name because some actually have 100 pairs (or more) legsthat is, a long, segmented body with a pair of legs in each of these segments.

Published on May 4 in the journal scienceThe research hypothesizes a parallel between the ability to have several legs connected in a biomimetic robot and the establishment of several signaling protocols that minimize transmission errors. In this case, the transmitted “signal” will be the sum of the robot’s body.

How were centipede robots tested?

The researchers started on the principle that increasing a robot’s number of pairs of legs would increase its ability to move steadily on uneven surfaces. baptized as spatial redundancyThe principle states that when one leg staggers, the “many” leg continues to move it anyway.

For Baxi Chong, first author of the paper, although bipedal robots require many sensors to control, “in applications such as search and rescue, Mars exploration, and even microrobots, It is necessary to control a robot with limited sensing capability.”.

To test the hypothesis, the researchers created terrains that mimic rugged natural environments and evaluated the robots adding more pairs of legs each time. Starting at six going to 16, They proved that as the number of legs increases, the robot starts to move more agile on the ground. Later tests in real terrain gave the same results.