Robo-roach to the rescue! Bots with 'squeezy' exoskeletons could help find trapped survivors in disaster zones
- Robot cockroaches designed to help in search-and-rescue missions
- Insect-inspired CRAM bot could find survivors by scurrying through debris
- Palm-sized, soft-legged machines can navigate challenging spaces
They are the ultimate survivors, capable of squeezing into any tight space uninvited.
But cockroaches have now inspired a robot that could assist in future search-and-rescue missions to find survivors, researchers claim.
The palm-sized robot has a similarly tough but flexible exoskeleton to the much-maligned insect, is ideally suited to scurrying rapidly through tightly-packed debris.
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Cockroaches seem to be able to invade any space uninvited, and a robot (pictured) inspired by the much maligned insect could assist in future search-and-rescue missions to find survivors, researchers claim
Its soft legs and articulated shell allow it to compress to more than half its size, so it could squeeze through the narrowest of cracks.
This would allow rescue workers to find and reach survivors stuck in confirmed spaces beneath collapsed buildings.
Two researchers at the University of California, Berkeley's Department of Integrative Biology studied cockroaches as they developed the robot.
They examined in particular how their rigid but jointed exoskeletons allows the insects to invade almost any space.
'Our discoveries from cockroaches inspired the design of a soft, legged hexapod robot named "compressible robot with articulated mechanisms" (CRAM) that we built using laser-cutting, laminating, and the folding of exoskeletal-like plates,' said Kaushik Jayaram and Robert Full, from the University of California's Department of Integrative Biology who conducted the study.
To measure the limits of the insects' abilities, the two reserachersconstructed an obstacle course for American cockroaches.
They found they are capable of slipping through a space smaller than a quarter of their standing body height in less than one second. They do this by compressing their exoskeleton.
Two researchers at the University of California, Berkeley's Department of Integrative Biology studied cockroaches in great detail, including how the insects can invade virtually any space, using their rigid but jointed exoskeletons. An example of how cockroaches can squeeze through gaps is shown above
The palm-sized bot with a similarly tough but flexible exoskeleton could help find and reach survivors stuck in confirmed spaces beneath collapsed buildings, by scurrying rapidly through tightly-packed debris. I could do this thanks to its ability to compress its articulated exoskeleton (shown above)
'Jointed exoskeletons permit rapid appendage-driven locomotion but retain the soft-bodied, shape-changing ability to explore confined environments,' the pair wrote in the journal PNAS.
The researchers also altered the friction of the ceiling and ground in the obstacle course.
They found that cockroaches can quickly navigate in confined spaces at speeds of approximately 20 body lengths per second using a method the scientists dubbed 'body-friction-legged crawling' where the insects squeeze though a gap head-first.
It was these discoveries that led the researchers to build their own artificial version of the American cockroach, mimicking its biology in 'soft robotics'.
To measure the limits of the insect's ability, the duo constructed an obstacle course for American cockroaches to find they are capable of slipping through a space smaller than a quarter of their standing body height (illustrated above) in less than one second
While the cockroach robot is only a prototype, it is the technology could go a long way in saving the lives of those trapped in the wreckage left behind after devastating large scale incidents and natural disasters such as the earthquake that hit Taiwan last week. A shot of the rescue operation is shown above
The cockroach robots weigh just 1.6 ounces (46 grams), with each including on-board electronics and a battery.
'By relying on supply chain management manufacturing techniques, we have been able to make our palm-sized, confined-space crawling robot completely autonomous in power and control,' Professor Full and PhD student Mr Jayaram wrote.
'Our bioinspired soft-robot prototype … is a first step toward a search-and-rescue robot that can perform crevice traversal and confined-space body-friction legged crawling in an effort to rapidly locate survivors,' they added.
While the cockroach robot is only a prototype, the technology could go a long way in saving the lives of those trapped in the wreckage following devastating large scale incidents and natural disasters such as the earthquake that hit Taiwan last week.
More than 125 people were trapped beneath rubble that was previously a block of flats in Tainan, Taiwan, before the powerful quake struck the southern part of the island on Saturday.
The death toll for the 6.4 magnitude earthquake has reached 24, with 22 of the fatalities stemming by the collapsed block of flats.
The researchers found that cockroaches can quickly navigate in confined spaces at speeds of approximately 20 body lengths per second using a method the scientists dubbed 'body-friction-legged crawling' where the insects squeeze though a gap head-first (shown above)
CYBORG ROACHES COULD HELP IN DISASTERS TOO
Two years ago, reserachers fitted cockroaches with electrical backpacks complete with tiny microphones to detect the faintest of sounds.
The idea is that cyborg cockroaches, or ‘biobots’, could enter crumpled buildings hit by earthquakes, for example, and help emergency workers find survivors.
‘In a collapsed building, sound is the best way to find survivors,’ said Alper Bozkurt, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at North Carolina State University.
‘The goal is to use the biobots with high-resolution microphones to differentiate between sounds that matter - like people calling for help - from sounds that don't matter - like a leaking pipe.
Scientists have developed technology that allows cyborg cockroaches, or biobots (pictured) to pick up sounds with small microphones and seek out the source of the sound. They could one day be used in emergency situations to detect survivors
‘Once we've identified sounds that matter, we can use the biobots equipped with microphone arrays to zero-in on where those sounds are coming from.’
The ‘backpacks’ control the robo-roach's movements because they are wired to the insect’s cerci - sensory organs that cockroaches usually use to feel if their abdomens brush against something.
By electrically stimulating the cerci, cockroaches can be prompted to move in a certain direction.
In fact, they have been programmed to seek out sound.
One type of 'backpack' is equipped with an array of three directional microphones to detect the direction of the sound and steer the biobot in the right direction towards it.
Another type is fitted with a single microphone to capture sound from any direction, which can be wirelessly transmitted - perhaps in the future to emergency workers.
They ‘worked well’ in lab tests and the experts have developed technology that can be used as an ‘invisible fence’ to keep the biobots in a certain area such as a disaster area, the researchers announced at the IEEE Sensors 2014 conference in Valencia, Spain.
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