FOLAMI ALAMUDUN GRADUATE STUDENT INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS & ROBOTICS COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY Biologically Inspired Robots

OUTLINE Overview Bio-inspired Morphologies Bio-inspired Sensors Bio-inspired Actuators Bio-inspired Control Architectures Energetic Autonomy Collective Robotics Bio-hybrid Robots Discussion

OVERVIEW Scientists and Engineers have historically drawn inspiration from Nature: Archytas − self-propelled flying device. Ts’ai Lun − Papermaking process. Sir Isaac Newton − Observed gravity. George de Mestral − Velcro. Natural inspiration is the new wave of robotics

OVERVIEW Bio-inspired vs. Biomimetric In observing a living creature: Bio-inspired robotics attempts to adapt engineering designs based on observations; while Biomimetic robotics tends to replace classical engineering solutions based on the observations.

BIO-INSPIRED MORPHOLOGIES Overview Bio-inspired Morphologies Bio-inspired Sensors Bio-inspired Actuators Bio-inspired Control Architectures Energetic Autonomy Collective Robotics Bio-hybrid Robots Discussion

BIO-INSPIRED MORPHOLOGIES Morphology in robotics is based on Functional objectives: Human-robot interaction  Human-friendly robots able to display emotions  WE-4RII project - Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan

Shape-shifting Robots: dynamically reconfigure morphology based on circumstances  CONRO robot  Polymorphic Robotics Laboratory - University of Southern California BIO-INSPIRED MORPHOLOGIES

BIO-INSPIRED SENSORS Overview Bio-inspired Morphologies Bio-inspired Sensors Bio-inspired Actuators Bio-inspired Control Architectures Energetic Autonomy Collective Robotics Bio-hybrid Robots Discussion

BIO-INSPIRED SENSORS Bio-inspired visual sensors in robotics: Simple  Forced robot motion  Obstacle avoidance  Inter-robot communication vs. Complex  Visual systems use optic-flowmonitoring for navigation tasks in robots  Object recognition

BIO-INSPIRED SENSORS Vision Cataglyphis : Optic-flow and odometry monitoring to evaluate travel distances. Humanoid vision: Footstep planning strategies for biped humanoid to navigate on rough terrain and uneven surfaces.  A real-time vision-based sensing system and an adaptive footstep planner for Honda ASIMO.

BIO-INSPIRED SENSORS Audision Observation of hearing in animals in robots: Phonotaxis behavior in crickets  Khepera robot equipped with a cricket-like auditory system  Echolocation and object avoidance Phonotaxis behavior in bats and dolphins  Yale Sonar robot uses echolocation behavior of dolphins and bats

BIO-INSPIRED SENSORS Touch Touchbased sensors have been developed for multiple applications: Antenna for rapid maneuvering in motion planning:  Observation of cockroach use of antenna as a tactile sensor to control orientation  Sprawlette – Stanford University Whiskers for object location and recognition:  Determine surface profile of objects close to the robot.  Recognition, classification and retrieval.

BIO-INSPIRED SENSORS Above: Cockroach running along wall; Below: Sprawlette exhibits similar behavior

BIO-INSPIRED SENSORS WhiskerBOT Monash University, Australia ii Sensing iii Position Gripper v Pick up i Approach iv Grasp

BIO-INSPIRED SENSORS Touch Human skin as temperature and pressure sensors  Tactile sensors sensitive to pressure produce electrical  Also produce very high resolution visual signals*

OUTLINE Overview Bio-inspired Morphologies Bio-inspired Sensors Bio-inspired Actuators Bio-inspired Control Architectures Energetic Autonomy Collective Robotics Bio-hybrid Robots Discussion

BIO-INSPIRED ACTUATORS Biological Systems have been observed as models for systems to perform: Locomotion:  Crawling, walking, wall-climbing, jumping, swimming and flying Grasping Drilling

BIO-INSPIRED ACTUATORS Crawling Biomimetic structures for locomotion in human body  Polychaete-like undulatory locomotion robot designed to crawl through the human gut Walking Eight, six, four and two legged robots depending on application.  BigDog quadruped robot  Runbot

BIO-INSPIRED ACTUATORS Wall-Climbing Robots designed to climb surfaces  Stickybot Swimming Biomimetic robots that emulate propulsive systems of fish, dolphins, or seals, Exploit the complex fluid mechanics for propulsion.

BIO-INSPIRED ACTUATORS Madeleine - Imitates the design of a turtle

BIO-INSPIRED ACTUATORS Flying Flapping wings offer several advantages over the fixed wings of today’s reconnaissance drones:  flying at low speeds  Hovering  making sharp turns  flying backward

BIO-INSPIRED ACTUATORS Mentor – University of Toronto

OUTLINE Overview Bio-inspired Morphologies Bio-inspired Sensors Bio-inspired Actuators Bio-inspired Control Architectures Energetic Autonomy Collective Robotics Bio-hybrid Robots Discussion

BIO-INSPIRED CONTROL ARCHITECTURES Integrating sensors, actuators and control in the design of a simple but complete artificial animal. Behavior-Based robots Learning robots  Associative, reinforcement, or imitation learning schemes  Motivational system and action selection mechanisms Evolving robots  Using appropriate evolutionary algorithms and artificial selection processes to adapt Developing Robots  Rule based behavior derivation

OUTLINE Overview Bio-inspired Morphologies Bio-inspired Sensors Bio-inspired Actuators Bio-inspired Control Architectures Energetic Autonomy Collective Robotics Bio-hybrid Robots Discussion

ENERGETIC AUTONOMY Bio-inspired systems aimed at reproducing the energetic autonomy of animals:  Resource descovery,  Resource acquisition or exploitation; and  Resource management

ENERGETIC AUTONOMY Chew Chew (left) 12-wheeled, train-like robot Powered through microbial fuel cell (MFC) Digests sugar using bacteria EchoBotII (right) Array of eight MFCs Digests flies using bacteria Operator fed or predatory

OUTLINE Overview Bio-inspired Morphologies Bio-inspired Sensors Bio-inspired Actuators Bio-inspired Control Architectures Energetic Autonomy Collective Robotics Bio-hybrid Robots Discussion

COLLECTIVE ROBOTS Bio-inspired collective robotics to discover how decentralized problem solving may be implemented in a group of robots Observation of group behavior of colonial organisms such as ants have led to research in:  Collaboration within groups of robots to combine to perform a single task to accomplish a common goal  Collaboration within groups of robots to accomplish individual tasks with a common goal

COLLECTIVE ROBOTS SWARMBOT an aggregate of s-bots self-organizing and self-assembling explore, navigate, and transport heavy objects

OUTLINE Overview Bio-inspired Morphologies Bio-inspired Sensors Bio-inspired Actuators Bio-inspired Control Architectures Energetic Autonomy Collective Robotics Bio-hybrid Robots Discussion

BIO-HYBRID ROBOTS Limitations in present-day engineering capability makes it attractive to integrate the needed biological component to create a bio-hybrid robot. Physarum polycephalum  Used to control the movement of a hexapod robot  Specialized motion planning control. Rhesus monkey  Connects monkeys brain to a robotic arm.  Animal controls robotic arm through visual feedback and brain signals.

BIO-HYBRID ROBOTS BIOTELE A monkey brain controlling a robotic arm

DISCUSSION Bio-inspired solutions to robotics have proved helpful as explained in this presentation. Future robots are likely to be engineered to handle survival issues and unpredictable environments as animals do. Progress in biological knowledge and interdisciplinary collaboration is critical to progress.

QUESTIONS