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This article is about artificial ant robots that were programmed to find disks that represented food and resources and push the disks to a designated area. The robots also went through artificial natural selection and gene flow. The experiment showed that after about 150 generations, the robots evolved to help each other push the large disks. This evolved altruism was predicted by biologist W.D. Hamilton in 1964 when he was trying to explain why organisms evolve to share time and resources. This could be a very interesting fact to use for future robots, because the robots could work together on a project without human direction.

This article talks about making robots using whole-skin locomotion that mimics amoeba movement. It seems like a great idea. This article also talks about the possibilities that are available with a robot using this type of locomotion. There is an iRobot BlobBot that can change its shape and squeeze and stretch. This would be great for using a robot to get into tight spaces. This seems useful for the robot project!

This short article discribes the accomplishements in robotics made by Mirko Kovac, a robotics engineer. It goes into detail about his break-through in the "perching" methods that stemmed from his grasshopper-inspired robots. There is also a brief video clip that essentially describes the "perching" process of his robot. I was really amazed to find that these robots are actually programed to run into whatever object they are looking for without being harmed!

Didn't stop there found articles about the featured robots: Salamander: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11338-salamander-robot-uses-spinal-cord-to-move.html Water-Strider: http://nanolab.me.cmu.edu/projects/waterstrider/ M-tran: http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/26/m-tran-self-reconfigurable-modular-robot/ (personal favorite, make sure to check out the video!)

more on insect robots  

Can you "annotate" or "describe" this website a little bit more? What did you like about it, did it give you any ideas? The website of course promotes the HML (I like the logo?) but are there any weaknesses in their design - yes, the flying robot is very small - but it is no where near autonomous. So, try to convince your classmates to go visit the site by annotating it. And also see the annotation as a way for you remember in 1 year what you liked about the site , to determine it if is worth visiting again.

Remember those wheel rolling caterpillars? Well now they are the focus of an robot which they have inspired. The problem is that soft body robots are slow, so for a solution scientist look to nature and found that these caterpillars have amazing speed yet are remarkably quite squishy. By mimicking them they have made advancements to help overcome this problem.

Found a robot that is intended to help future oil spills. This robot is related to the topic i am planning to design my robot under

Nice find. Next time add a little bit more to your annotation. Do you see any disadvantages to this type of robot? How about applications?

A newly created robot improves upon a gecko's sticking power.

Here is another interesting article about bio-inspired robotics. They have a particularly interesting flying robot based off of a fly as well as other pages including nanostructures, biomaterials, and more.

This robot uses rhythmic neural activity to make the spine of the robot oscillate like a salamander. The salamander also serves as an effective model for an amphibious robot. The swaying motion helps for both terrestrial and aquatic locomotion.

South American electric knifefish are a leading model system within neurobiology. Recent efforts have focused on understanding how they move, and how that relates to how their brain controls movement. Knifefish swim by means of an undulatory fin that runs most of the length of their body, affixed to the belly. Using this fin enables the fish to stay relatively straightforward, making them different from sharks in this regard. The results of this experiment show that there is an optimal operational region in the fin's kinematic parameter space, when the fin is used in conjunction with a robot.

This is an article about a new discovery that some octopuses tuck in six of their legs and run backwards on two to get away from predators. Biologists think this is so that they can remain camouflaged and increase their speed. This is important for bio-inspiration because the article also mentions how this could be used for "soft" robotics and artificial muscle. It is the first underwater bipedal locomotion that has been discovered.

I found an amazing smart bird robot. It completely and successfully mimic the way birds fly.

Not cutting edge or new research, but yet to be brought forth from what I've seen. This article tells of robots built the size of roaches, not resembling them however, coated with a coattail of chemicals resembling that of real roaches. These robots where then accepted into the swarms and even more surprising were able to influence swarm decisions making. When scurrying for cover the robots ran to well light shelter, counter of nature roach behavior, and was able to get the swarm to follow them. More needs to be researched but this is the beginning of understanding the swarm!

Personal robots may soon be as cheap and customizable as personal computers.

Be it that we are nearing the end of the class, I found this video to be a very good summary of what we have covered in the class and what we can take away from it. The video is based upon the new movement of finding design inspiration from nature (Biomimicry). For this specific interview, they focus on an interview with Robert Full to educate the viewer about engineering inspiration from nature. If you remember, Robert Full believes that evolution doesn't necessarily design the perfect mechanism, but rather the mechanism that allows the animal to survive. Therefore, we as humans are able to learn from the abilities of animals gained from evolution and further refine the specific ability to be more efficient and applicable to our needs. The video covers a bunch of the innvoations we have discussed during our time in class including the gecko robot and the running robot RHex. I think this would be a nother great video to show in the beginning of the class for next semester. It presents the general idea of BioInspiration, provides examples of research and application, and also discusses the great importance it will play in the future; building more efficient and useful technology.

This is quite a lengthy article, but if you like dense math and physics, then this is the article for you. Usually, when one thinks about bees, you think of CCD, or bees' dance. This time, scientists are interested in their vision. Using an interesting mix of mirrors and a video camera, we are actually able to somewhat recreate what a bee sees. Obviously, it's not perfect, but it's pretty close.  The central aim was to build a light-weight system that can be used as an intuitive tool for assessing the visual world from the bees' perspective by reconstructing their visual input. This system may also serve as an insect-inspired system for mobile robots, especially for small flying vehicles.

Kate, this is a very interesting article and it points out that simple systems can be just complex enough for us to learn from. Nice annotation - this type of annotation will help you in the future - I mean why read a dense paper (full of math and physics) again if it was no good in the first place.

This article talks about some really interesting possible bio-inspired sensors on future robots. They're very likely to achieve according to the current technical development.

I found a sandy robot inspired by spiders and crabs in IEEE. Their ideas are practical and very likely to be applied in future.