Dutch research institute [AMOLF] shows off a small robot capable of walking, hopping, and swimming without any separate control system. The limbs synchronize thanks to the physical interplay between the robot’s design and its environment. There are some great videos on that project page, so be sure to check it out.
Powered by a continuous stream of air blown into soft, kinked tubular limbs, the legs oscillate much like the eye-catching “tube man” many of us have seen by roadsides. At first it’s chaotic, but the movements rapidly synchronize into a meaningful rhythm that self-synchronizes and adapts. On land, the robot does a sort of hopping gait. In water, it becomes a paddling motion. The result in both cases is a fast little robot that does it all without any actual control system, relying on physics.
You can watch it in action in the video, embedded below. The full article “Physical synchronization of soft self-oscillating limbs for fast and autonomous locomotion” is also available.
Gait control is typically a nontrivial problem in robotics, but it doesn’t necessarily require a separate control system. Things like BEAM robotics and even the humble bristlebot demonstrate the ability for relatively complex behavior and locomotion to result from nothing more than the careful arrangement of otherwise simple elements.
Props, Mr. Papp, for mentioning BEAM robotics in connection with this. One of the classic BEAM designs, the Walker, creates in a motor the exact same tunable and coupled oscillators that these robots use. It is neat as heck to see an approximation of that mechanism powered by a flow of air rather than a flow of electrons, but I’m guessing almost any compressible fluid works if the flow is restricted and directed in the correct fashion.
This is the sort of thing that puts a real smile on my face.
I have to say, that is one of the most pleasing, informative, and entertaining articles I’ve seen here in a long time.
Props for their presentation.
Very cool to know those inflatable dancing people near furniture stores are just Olympic swimmers on land lol. What a fun article. Thanks HaD :)
Very nice mechanical hack:)
And now only to change open air circuit for some closed hydraulic circuit with small local pump and let’s go.
I would prefer single article like this per month instead of 2-3 daily “hacks” done solely for the purpose of “monetizing” “content”.
Eh?