Robotic earthworm could be use for secret military missions
The Petri Dish | Staff | Saturday, August 11, 2012
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and Seoul National University are turning heads with their latest creation: A robotic earthworm. While some may call it the most detestable robotic-creation yet, others will call it an engineering marvel. The earthworm robot is described by researchers in the latest report from MIT News.
According to Discovery News, earthworms move by stretching their bodies forward at the front and pulling their bodies in at the back. These actions create a ripple that move the earthworm. Scientists call that expansion and contraction of the muscles peristalsis. There are several other living beings on earth that use peristalsis on a daily basis, including snails, sea cucumbers and humans. Our gastrointestinal tracts use peristalsis to move food to the stomach.
After studying the motion and physical makeup of earthworms, researchers have developed a soft autonomous robot that moves by way of peristalsis. The robot inches along by stretching and pulling its body, similar to an earthworm. Researchers report that the robotic earthworm is nearly indestructible. The robot will still move, even after it has been repeatedly stepped upon.
Researchers believe that the robotic earthworm could have military-like uses. According to Sangbae Kim, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, the soft autonomous robot may be appropriate for moving over inhospitable terrain or squeezing through small spaces.
The robot, nicknamed “Meshworm” because of the flexible tube that is its body, contains “artificial muscle” from wire constructed of nickel and titanium (an alloy that stretches and contracts with heat). The researchers mimicked the segments of an earthworm by wrapping wire around the flexible tube. To move the robotic earthworm forward, researchers applied a small current to the wire.
“You can throw it, and it won’t collapse,” Mr. Kim says. “Most mechanical parts are rigid and fragile at small scale, but the parts in Meshworms are all fibrous and flexible. The muscles are soft, and the body is soft … we’re starting to show some body-morphing capability.”BCS reports that the robotic earthworm could be used by the military for reconnaissance missions. Kellar Autumn, a professor of biology at Lewis and Clark College, says that the technology could be used in mobile phones, portable computers and cars in the future.
“Even though the robot’s body is much simpler than a real worm — it has only a few segments — it appears to have quite impressive performance,” Mr. Autumn says. “I predict that in the next decade we will see shape-changing artificial muscles in many products, such as mobile phones, portable computers and automobiles.”
MIT says that the the research was supported by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Details of the study were recently published in the journal IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics.
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