The centipede robot that can move on almost any terrain and access areas that are difficult for humans to access.
For many years, engineers from all over the world have been inspired by the animals that inhabit our nature to create all kinds of robots, like some inspired by amphibians, others by insects, and with regular results.
Now a group of scientists has set their sights on the centipede to create a robot capable of accessing almost any place.
Specifically, researchers from the Department of Mechanical Sciences and Bioengineering at Osaka University have created a myriapod biomimetic robot capable of taking advantage of the centipede’s natural instability by turning straight walking into curved movement.
To achieve this, they changed the flexibility of the couplings, making the robot in the form of a centipede could rotate without the need for a complex computer control system.
This robot consists of six segments with two legs connected to each segment and flexible joints, it is 135 cm long and weighs just over 9 kilos.
They tested the robot’s ability to reach specific places
“We were inspired by the ability of certain extremely agile insects that allows them to control dynamic instability in their own movement to induce rapid movement changes,” he says. Shinya Aoistudy author.
And it is that they discovered that not directly directing the movement of the axis of the robot’s body, but controlling the flexibility of the axis of the same, could reduce both the computational complexity and the energy requirements.
They tested the robot’s ability to reach specific locations and found that it could move by taking curved paths towards targets.
The researchers intend to use this centipede robot for search and rescue, exploration on other planets, or work in dangerous environments.
