Imagine tiny robotic bees buzzing around wildflower fields, helping real bees perform vital pollination duties in the future. It is a vision that Harvard’s micro-institutional lab has been researching for years. obstacle? Until recently, the only login that Harvard Robbie mastered was a crash.
Harvard researchers now armed their little Robertby with four long and graceful landing appendages, inspired by crane flying legs. (Crane flies are those nightmarish but harmless insects that look like spiders, which people often mistake for giant mosquitoes). like study Published Wednesday in the journal Science Robotech, a soft landing brings Robobees closer to practical applications, which now seems to be direct in a science fiction movie such as environmental monitoring, disaster surveillance, artificial pollination, and even the manipulation of delicate organisms.
“Previously, if we were going to land, we would slightly shut the vehicle above the ground, then put it down and pray that it would land upright and safely,” Christian Chan, a PhD student at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, explained in a Harvard study. statement.
Leaded by Robert Wood, Harvard professor of engineering and applied sciences, Chan and his colleagues provided inspiration for the new landing design in the university’s comparative zoology database. They eventually chose the crane’s fly form, equiping Robobee with four long connecting legs. The update also includes an improved controller (the robot’s brain) to slow down the small robot’s landing method. As stated in the statement, the combination now results in a “gentle chassis.”
An earlier version of Robobee worked on a controlled landing as air vortexes generated from its flapping wings created instability near the ground. Helicopters also experienced an appropriate problem called the “ground effect.” Besides weighing 0.004 ounces (1/10g) on the Robobee and its wingspan is only 1.2 inches (3 cm), it may be more challenging.
“The successful landing of any flying vehicle depends on the speed at which it quickly hits and dissipates energy quickly before impacting after impact,” explains Nak-Seung Patrick Hyun. “Even with Robobee’s tiny winged flap, the ground effect is not easily ignored when flying close to the ground, and after impact, it gets worse.” Hyun conducted a Robertby landing test on solid surfaces and leaves like a real insect.
The crane fly leg and updated controller also protect Robertby’s fragile piezoelectric actuator – the small robot equivalent of insect muscles. “The main disadvantage of piezoelectric actuators of micro-robots is their fragility and low fracture toughness,” the researchers explained in the study. “The qualifying legs help protect the delicate piezoelectric actuators from collision-induced fractures during impact landing.”
Going forward, the team aims to provide Robobee sensors, power and control autonomy, which the statement calls the “three-pronged holy grail” that will bring its seemingly elusive practical applications closer to reality.
