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The new issue of the US “Science” magazine disclosed for the first time the many feet developed by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology.robotwhich can efficiently navigate rough terrain without relying onsensorThe robot, which detects road conditions at all times, was inspired by centipedes, which are known for their wobbly gait, which can have dozens to hundreds of legs and can traverse any terrain without stopping.

Daniel Goldman, professor in the School of Physics, said: “When you see a centipede running, you’re seeing an animal that lives in a different world than ours. In our world, the rules of motion are mostly Inertia. For example, when we swing our legs, our feet hit the ground and move forward. But, in the world of centipedes, if they stop swinging their bodies and limbs, they stop moving immediately.”

Based on this feature, a team of physicists, engineers, and mathematicians at the Georgia Institute of Technology developed a new theory of multi-legged motion and created a multi-legged robot model that took advantage of the centipede’s motion characteristics and found that it has redundant Legged Robots can move on uneven surfaces as theory predicts without any additional sensing or control technology, and these robots are precisely the most suitable solution for scenarios such as moving on complex, rough terrain. One, in the future could be used for agriculture, search and rescue and even space exploration.

Mathematician Claude Shannon’s communication theory mentioned that in complex communication lines, in order to ensure that information is transmitted from point A to point B, instead of sending it as a continuous signal, it is broken down into discrete digital units , and then repeat the transmission using an appropriate encoding method that reduces information loss due to interference and noise.

Inspired by this theory, the researchers proposed that adding pairs of legs to the robot could improve its ability to move robustly on challenging surfaces—a concept they call spatial redundancy—and set out to test Does redundancy help with material transport, so more legs are fitted to the robot, from 4 legs and later increased to 16 legs.

It turns out that this redundancy allows the robot’s legs to succeed on their own, it doesn’t need sensors to interpret the environment, and even if one leg is unstable, multiple legs will keep it moving. Unlike advanced biped robots, biped robots usually require many sensors to control it in real time, but in applications such as search and rescue, exploring Mars and even micro-robots, the robot may become paralyzed due to rapid changes in the environment.

The researchers are already applying their findings to agriculture. Goldman co-founded a company that hopes to use the robots to weed fields where herbicides are ineffective. Next, the researchers will focus on testing the minimum number of mechanical legs to complete complex tasks, in order to obtain the balance between energy, speed, power and robustness in such a complex system, and to minimize cost and energy consumption, making it Can be commercialized in the future.