What are Biomimetic Robots?

"Bionic robot" refers to a robot that imitates living things and engages in biological characteristics. At present, mechanical pets are very popular in western countries. In addition, sparrow-like robots can perform environmental monitoring tasks and have broad development prospects. In the 21st century, mankind will enter an aging society. The development of "humanoid robots" will make up for the serious shortage of young labor, solve social problems such as family services and medical care in an aging society, and open up new industries and create new employment opportunities. . "

Chinese name: Bionic robot
Corresponding: Biological, engaged in biological

Nature: machine
Background: aging society

The future of bionic robots

First of all, robots made by imitating certain insects are not simple. For example, some foreign scientists have observed that an ant's brain is small and has poor eyesight, but its navigation ability is superb: When the ant returns to call a companion after finding a source of food, the image of this food is always stored in its brain And use the method of matching the image in the brain with the real scene in front of you, and return the same way. Scientists believe that mimicking the function of ants can make robots have superb path-finding ability in unfamiliar environments. ^[1]

Secondly, at any time, the research on bionic machinery (equipment) is multi-faceted, that is, we must develop both robots that imitate human beings and machinery (equipment) that imitates other living things. Before the advent of robots, in addition to researching and manufacturing automatic dolls, people were very interested in mechanical animals, such as the legendary Zhuge Liang making wooden cows and stray horses, modern computer pioneer Babbage designed chicken and sheep toys, and the famous French engineer Bao Kansong making water The iron ducks are very famous.

During the development of robots into intelligent robots, some people put forward the "opposition that robots must think before they can do things," and believe that many simple robots can also complete complex tasks. In the early 1990s, with the help of students, Brooks, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, produced a batch of mosquito-type robots, named insect robots. The habits of these small things are very similar to cockroaches. They don't think, they can only act according to human-made procedures.

A few years ago, scientific and technological workers made electronic robotic birds for the San Diego Zoo. They could imitate female vultures and feed them on time. Japan and Russia produced an electronic robotic crab that can perform deep-sea surveys and collect rock samples. , To capture underwater creatures, and perform operations such as welding under the sea. The United States has developed a machine tuna called Charlie. It is 1.32 meters long and consists of 2,843 parts. By swinging the body and tail, it can swim like a real fish at a speed of 7.2 km / h. You can use it for several months under the sea to map ocean maps and detect underwater pollution. You can also use it to photograph creatures because it mimics tuna.

Some scientists are designing tuna submarines, which are actually tuna robots, which can travel at speeds of up to 20 knots. They are veritable underwater moving machines. Its flexibility is much higher than that of existing submarines. It can reach almost any area underwater. It can be remotely controlled by people. It can easily enter trenches and caves deep in the sea floor, sneak into enemy ports, and conduct reconnaissance. Undetected. As a military reconnaissance and scientific exploration tool, its development and application prospects are very broad.

Similarly, the research and manufacture of insect robots have very promising prospects. For example, someone has developed a robotic insect with elastic legs that is only about 1/3 the size of a credit card. It can easily jump over obstacles like a cricket, and it can move almost 37 meters in an hour. The most special thing about this kind of robot insect is that it breaks through the concept that the joint must be powered by an engine. The new method for inventing households is: from lead, zirconium

Bionic robot Metal strips of titanium, titanium, etc. form a bimorph regulator. When charging, the regulator bends, and after charging, it springs back to its original state. After repeated charging, it becomes a vibration bar. There are insect limbs on the vibration bar. The vibration of the vibration bar becomes the power of the machine insect. Each vibration will make the crawling insect advance by 2 mm. A single "worm king" can control a large group of machine insects, which will send control instructions to each machine insect in the form of a relay. With this robotic insect, you can perform reconnaissance on the battlefield, transport items, or explore the path on other planets.

Bionic robot architecture

Robot architecture refers to the structure of the information processing and control logic of one or more robots in order to accomplish the specified goals.

Break down based on function

The architecture based on functional decomposition belongs to the traditional prudent intelligence in artificial intelligence. It is reflected in the structure as a serial distribution and asynchronous execution in the execution mode, that is, information processing and control according to the "perceive, plan, and act" mode. achieve. Take NASR human MtI proposed by NASA and US National Standards Agency as typical representatives. The advantage of this architecture is that the functions of the system are clear. The hierarchy is clear and the implementation is simple. However, the application processing method greatly prolongs the system's response time to external events, and changes in the environment lead to re-planning, which reduces the implementation efficiency. Therefore, it is only suitable to complete more complex work in a known structured environment.

Break down based on behavior

The architecture based on behavior decomposition belongs to modern reactive intelligence in artificial intelligence. It is structurally embodied as a parallel (inclusive) distribution, and is executed synchronously in the execution mode, that is, the information processing and control. The behavioral hierarchical containment architecture (Subsumption Architecture) proposed by MIT's RABrooks and the architecture based on MotorSc hema proposed by Archin are typical representatives. Its main advantages are short execution time, high efficiency and strong maneuverability. However, due to the lack of overall management, it is difficult to adapt to various situations. Therefore, it is only suitable for performing relatively simple tasks in the Mutao environment.

Decomposition based on intelligent distribution

The architecture based on intelligent distribution belongs to the latest distributed intelligence in artificial intelligence, which is reflected in the distributed distribution in the structure, and is a cooperative execution in execution. It can not only complete the respective local problem solving, but also solve single or multiple problems through cooperation. Global issues. A typical example is a multi-agent based architecture. The advantage of this architecture is that it has both the characteristics of "smart distribution" and a unified coordination mechanism. However, how to reasonably divide and coordinate among various agents still requires a lot of research and practice. This architecture has been widely used in many large intelligent information processing systems.

In addition to the above three main types of architectures, there are also some improved hybrid architectures, such as behavior decomposition mode with feedback links, hierarchical architecture based on distributed intelligence, multi-agent structure based on functional decomposition, and so on. . But on the whole, they are either insufficient in the flexibility and extensibility of the functional modules, or fail to coordinate the prudent intelligence and the reactive intelligence well, or the communication mechanism between the levels is not perfect.

Control system

Principle of Bionic Architecture

In essence, prudent intelligence, reactive intelligence, and distributed intelligence are all references and bionics to biological control logic and reasoning methods. However, due to the limitation of objective conditions and the limitation of demand and purpose, they are all just from a certain An one-sided, partial imitation of biological intelligence from an angle and direction. The bionic architecture in this paper is based on the aforementioned biological control logic and behavioral reasoning, and fully draws on the advantages and disadvantages of three architectural ideas based on prudent intelligence, reactive intelligence, and distributed intelligence. The shortcomings and problems in the control architecture of mobile robots working in an unknown environment, a new control idea and concept with adaptive behavior and evolutionary ability is proposed.

Drawing on the idea of distributed intelligence to introduce a social behavior control layer in the control architecture;

Draw on the adaptive thinking of biology, and realize the learning from the thoughtful behavior layer to the reflective behavior layer in the control architecture in this generation;

Drawing on the self-evolutionary thoughts of living things, the evolution (or degradation) from the reflective behavior layer to the instinctive behavior layer in the control architecture is realized in multiple generations.

Therefore, the bionic architecture consists of four behavior control layers, namely, instinctual behavior control layer, reflective behavior control layer, prudent behavior control layer, and social behavior control layer. They receive external and internal information from the perception layer in parallel. , Each make a logical judgment and reaction, send control information to the end execution layer, adjust itself and adapt to the external environment through competition and coordination, so as to complete the work tasks in accordance with goals.

Bionic robot example

Bionic robot machine scorpion

The robot scorpion, which is about 50 cm long, is different from other traditional robots in that it does not have the ability to solve complex problems. The robot scorpion relies almost exclusively on reflection to solve walking problems. This allows it to respond quickly to anything that bothers it, with two ultrasonic sensors on its head. If it hits an obstacle that is 50% taller, it will bypass. And, if the left sensor detects an obstacle, it will automatically turn right.

Bionic robot mechanical cockroach

Bionic robots (20 photos)

Not only scorpions, but even cockroaches can provide scientists with inspiration for design. Scientists have found that when cockroaches move at high speed, they only land on three legs at a time, two on each side and one on each side. Created a mechanical cockroach, which not only can advance three meters per second, but also has a very good balance and can adapt to various harsh environments. In the near future, space exploration or elimination of landmines is its use.

Bionic robot machine barracuda

The MIT Robot Barracuda is the world's first robotic fish to swim freely. Most of it is made of glass fiber, covered with a layer of steel mesh, and the outermost layer is a synthetic elastic fiber. The tail is made of spring-like, tapered fiberglass coils, making this machine barracuda both sturdy and flexible. A servo motor powers the robot fish.

Bionic robot robot frog

The frog leg of the robot is equipped with springs, which can bend the leg first like a frog and then jump up. The longest distance for a robot frog to jump on the earth is 2.4 meters; on Mars, because Mars' gravity is about one-third of the earth, the robot frog's long jump performance can reach 7.2 meters, close to the world record of human long jump. . Therefore, it will no longer be in front of a small rock like the Mars SUV in 2007.

Bionic robot machine spider

This was created by space engineers taking inspiration from spider stunts. It has a set of antennas that mimic insect antennae that detect terrain and obstacles as it moves its slender legs. The original shape of the robot spider is very small, with a height of only 18 cm, which is not much larger than a human palm. "Spider-Man" can not only climb the steep slopes of Mars that cannot be reached by space buggy, but also cost much, so that a large number of space "Spider-Man" will be spread all over the Mars land.

Bionic robot machine tuna

Robotic Tuna Robotic Tuna is the latest achievement made by MIT in the development of robotic fish since Charlie. This new prototype has a soft body with only one engine and six moving parts inside, making it able to simulate the movement of real fish to a greater extent.

Bionic robot robot gecko

On November 15, 2008, Dr. Xiaoyang Li and his research team led by Zhuhai New Concept Aerospace Vehicle Co., Ltd. successfully developed a bionic robot gecko Freelander. As a new type of intelligent robot with small size and flexible action, the bionic gecko "Freelander" may be widely used in search, rescue, counter-terrorism, scientific experiments and scientific investigations in the near future. According to Dr. Li Xiaoyang, this robot gecko can quickly climb up and down vertically in the walls, underground and wall gaps of various buildings, or walk upside down under the ceiling, against smooth glass, rough or dusty walls The surface and various metal materials can adapt to it, it can automatically identify obstacles and avoid detours, and the movement is flexible and realistic. Its flexibility and speed of movement are comparable to that of a gecko in nature.

Bionic robot machine jellyfish

The US Naval Research Office has developed a "robot jellyfish" that can be used to monitor surface ships and submarines, detect chemical spills, and monitor the movement of migrating fish. These machine jellyfish are connected by thin wires made of bio-sensing memory alloy. When these metal wires are heated, they shrink like muscle tissue. ^[2]