Tiny, Fast, & Strong: An Insect-sized Robot that Mimics Cheetah

Taking an example from the specialized footpads of insects, engineers from the University of California, Berkeley, used this principle to develop specialized robots that resemble insects. The principle of the footpads, which is known as electrostatic adhesion, was used to come up with an insect-sized robot that can move like insects.

Moreover, the agile dynamics of a cheetah is a unique feature that is included in the robot. This tiny insect-sized robot, with the strength and endurance of a cheetah, automatically makes itself adaptable in complex environments like unstable terrains and obstacle courses.

Features of the MicroBot

The robot is created using material that contracts easily with the application of electric current. In the year 2019, a research team explained in a paper that this specific design can be used to construct an insect robot that can slither across a distance with a speed of about 1.5 miles/hour. This was also determined as a speed similar to that of cockroaches and also the fastest as an insect robot.

With the help of electrostatic footpads, an application of electric current can increase the force and make the robot glide through a surface in no time. It also makes the surface of the footpad sticky enough to stick to the ground while the rest of the robot can be rotated. Hence, these footpads allow the operators to fully control the movements of the robot, which have a more advanced acceleration as compared to live insects.

Taking inspiration from nature

The insect robot that was designed at UC Berkeley has taken inspiration from the sticky footpads of insects, the build of a cockroach, as well as the agility of a cheetah. They managed to replicate multiple aspects of nature into one tiny robot. Similarly, Ollie, a mini-bot that does backflips, was developed by Tencent Robotics. It has parallel legs and also a functional tail that helps the robot stand erect.

Electrostatic footpads

When it comes to robots, the two most important things that one can look for is the feature of agility and control over its path. In a microrobot specifically, the lack of structural rigidity may hinder its characteristics in certain aspects. This, in turn, would lead to a lower performance overall. Electrostatic footpads work wonders for the maintenance of microbot rigidity and structural integrity.

The use of a piezoelectric film directed based on the structural resonance frequency of the robot, along with two electrostatic footpads, helps with swift movements during rotations. A two-wire connection of both these features helps with the simultaneous functioning of these aspects in a microrobot.

With the help of these footpads, a centripetal acceleration of over 28 body lengths per square second was determined in an insect-sized robot, which is far better than that of a live insect like a cockroach. This was determined by directing the robot through a track that was 120 centimeters in length, which it crossed within only 5.6 seconds.

You can’t squash this Robot

If you are squirmy at the sight of bugs, insects, and other crawlers, you will probably squish them on the spot. But what do you do when an insect-sized robot materializes before your eyes? Chances are, you will try to squish that too. But guess what? This insect robot probably won’t get affected by this and will continue to endure through its path. The functioning of the robots may not stop despite the weight on them.

A microrobot is highly useful when it comes to navigating through certain terrains for search and rescue missions. These are especially notable when it comes to fitting into places that no human or mammal can fit through. The small size of this robot does not hinder its strength which makes it a very suitable device for search operations and other accidents.

What went wrong with the first model?

The university engineers had designed a similar micro robot a while earlier, but it had a couple of issues. The current insect robot has most of these issues resolved which made the issues with the previous robot a learning opportunity for the newer, better version. According to Liwei Lin, the original robot was initially expected to be very efficient. With swift mobility, it could navigate through paths at a fast pace.

However, the main issue with this was that controlling the robot was hard. They found it hard to maintain the direction of the robot which made it move towards a random direction at any given point. This could have risen through manufacturing discrepancies which may have made the robot asymmetrical. The lack of symmetry, thereby, made it favor one side more than the other.

Recent challenges

The construction of a microbot, like a miniature device with the full potential of insects and cheetahs, is a challenging task in itself. However, the engineers’ team at UC Berkeley did face other challenges during the process of building the robot. One of the biggest challenges for them was to build a robot that was so small, but efficient, strong, and agile.

This small-scale robot had to be constructed in such a way that it would not let its size affect its power itself. They needed to design it considering the amount of power that it can hold at any particular time. While constructing larger robots you do not need to worry about the maintenance of power. This is because you can include large power systems like batteries in the robot itself.

Smaller robots cannot do this, and so, the researchers had to work on many ways to enable the robots to incorporate sensors and other electronic equipment with little power.

Final Thoughts

As we dive into the world of robotics, we witness several innovations which were once thought impossible for the human species. Natural as a sole inspirational source has worked wonders in helping researchers in devising unique robots. The field has a lot of scopes to make human life easier and also to explore surfaces that have not been met with the human eye.

Moreover, developers are quite inspired by what nature has to offer and try to incorporate it in their developments as much as possible. These include robots imitating the characteristics of bi-pedals along with a tail and incorporating features to help employ the robot as a tool for soil sampling, underground installations, erosion control mechanisms, and other similar tasks.

Robots now have the tolerance to operate in unfamiliar environments as well which suggests their endurance and animal-like resistance. They also possess potential uses in space as extraterrestrial robots in low gravity environments.

Also published on https://robofluence.com/tiny-robot-mimics-cheetah/.