From: ScienceDaily Magazine (info@sciencedaily.com)
Date: Thu Mar 15 2001 - 19:32:24 MST
Principles
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Source: Office Of Naval Research
(http://www.onr.navy.mil)
Date Posted: Thursday, March 15, 2001
Web Address: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/03/010308071808.htm
"ROBO-SCORPION" BASED ON BIOLOGICALLY DERIVED DESIGN PRINCIPLES
If you want to build something that will behave well, perform tasks
autonomously, and fit flawlessly in its environment, chances are you'll find
a good example somewhere in nature.
Take the scorpion, for instance. Here you have an invertebrate creature that
withstands searing heat, doesn't eat much, moves omni-directionally, climbs
with ease and alacrity over hills and rocks and prickly things, and defends
itself in no uncertain terms. Building a scorpion based on biologically
derived design principles is the basis of a new discipline called
biomimetics - mimicking nature. If you could give it marching orders,
well... it just might make the perfect ground soldier. "And the fact that it
could look like a scorpion," says Office of Naval Research Program Manager,
Dr. Joel Davis, "would give it what every soldier in the desert wants...
stealth."
But can it be done? The answer, say scientists funded by ONR, is yes. At
Northeastern University in Boston, they've done it. And while it still
doesn't exactly look like a scorpion, it's beginning to act more and more
like one. By integrating a low level behavior repertoire - in other words
they haven't asked it to do too much yet - with control ideas based on
neurobiological studies on invertebrates, they can get it to perform some
simple autonomous tasks. In summer 2002, the Scorpion will be taken to the
Mojave desert where it will make its way 25 miles into that desert, and then
find its way back to its exact deployment location, a roundtrip journey of
50 miles made completely on its own. It will be solar-powered in its final
form.
And so, the Office of Naval Research adds the Scorpion to a robotic
menagerie that now includes Robo-Lobster, Robo-Lamprey, Robo-Tuna, and
Robo-Fly, among others. Under the sea, on the sea, and in the air, robots
packed with sensors and computing power able to go where man can't or
shouldn't. There is great potential for Navy operations here. Clandestine
reconnaissance and surveillance is one. Mine detection is another. Fire
control, stress detection, reactor inspections, search and rescue... the
possibilities are nearly endless.
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