Robot-"any automatically operated machine that replaces human effort, though it may not resemble human beings in appearance or perform functions in a humanlike manner". Definition by Encyclopaedia Britannica.
As innovation in robots continue researchers and engineers look for ways to improve current designs and invent completely new ones. For some years insects have been a constant source of ideas for legged robots. As they are many ideal features that can lead to a stable and load carrying platform which would be able to carry supplies over terrain that most wheeled robots would have difficulty crossing. Using insects and other animal traits to help create how robots move and think is called biomimicry. These features on the robot can also lead it to have several more jobs, investigating a collapsed building for survivors, crawling up and in buildings to make repairs where human hands can't reach. Even landing on planets and other celestial bodies collecting information and soil for analysis. But of course some further research has to continue before we get that far into using these types of robots. These are some records of research that have seen insight in their development and future uses into which they may be going.
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They type of robot that is presented to the left is a type of hexapodal robot. The hexapodal means that it uses six legs to move around. This design is most used because of insects they are modeled off of. |
| The drawing to the right shows one way how the robot would move, the tripod gait. The H is the head with the T being the tail. The leg in the middle on one side moves forward with two legs on the other side of the insect, one being on each end also moving forward. This would repeat with each three legs. |  |
Now that we have seen one kind of insect like robot, it's time to move from crawling on the ground to flying in the air. And like insects instead of using fixed wings and a propeller, these flap like the insects they are modeled off of. As you might guess getting wings to flap on a robot the size of a grasshopper means that the normal motors that we see everyday can not be used, they are just too heavy. A one motor called a pneumatic artificial muscle is light and powerful enough to make these tiny robots fly. The one below to the left is an example and the picture to the right is a type of robot where that muscle could be used in.
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Now you see by the image where the robot is laying on a single finger above. Though it would seem that robots this tiny might not work or not have enough power to sustain a prolonged flight, having these is very much possible. In fact they might be around right now though such information like that might be classified. Powering these small robots could be done though solar power and it might seem like giving these robots the "smarts" to be able to fly around might seem improbable, it can already be done by the use of swarm logic. Making the robots a single unit by having them communicate together and be many units. Also by giving them rules as "do not run into each other","go the way the majority of the swarm is going","and stay together".
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