By John Brundred
For The Diamondback
According to shows like The Jetsons, robots should be deeply rooted in 21st-century life.
But according to one professor who visited this university, this is simply not the case yet — robots cannot even get from place to place well enough.
Daniel Goldman, a physics professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, addressed this issue in front of about 50 people Wednesday afternoon as part of the Lockheed Martin Robotics Seminar in a lecture titled “Robophysics: Robotics Meets Physics.”
“We do not have the fundamental principles to have robots move well in the real world,” Goldman said. “The best snake robot in the world can’t even get through grass.”
In order to build better, more lifelike robots, Goldman said, he is studying animal movements and building new robots based on his findings.
“Locomotion in the natural world is far superior,” Goldman said. “Animals move throughout life more easily than human-made robots.”
Animals have inspired machines’ designs numerous times. One of the examples Goldman introduced was Rex the robot, a hexagonal robot based on the movements of a cockroach.
Goldman chose to study the movement of snakes because of their ability to maneuver effectively despite being limbless, and their ability to move over sand. He analyzed the motions of sidewinder rattlesnakes and broke down their complex motion into two wave motions — vertical and horizontal body waves. The snakes can change the phase and amplitude of these waves to maneuver more easily.
Goldman demonstrated this by showing a video of a robot snake attempting and then failing to maneuver up a hill, and then a video of a real snake successfully climbing the hill.
Goldman said he and his team of researchers were able to observe that sidewinders make gradual changes in direction by altering their horizontal wave, while keeping the vertical wave constant. These findings could be applied to the creation of a hill-climbing robot.
Using the robot, Goldman and his team also learned more about snakes. For example, the researchers were able to figure out exactly how quickly regular snakes can make their way up the hill.
“Down the line, you will look at a robot and it will behave just like an animal in nature,” sophomore mechanical engineer major Bryce Peterson said.
Peterson added that it’s valuable to learn more about physics, biology and all of robotics once you completely break down an animal or object.
Junior computer science major Abe Sidibe said he came to the event to learn more about robots, in a world where “robots are becoming a part of our daily life” and “drones will be delivering our packages and cars will drive themselves.”
“It really exciting and impressive, learning robotics from biology and learning about biology from robots,” Sidibe said.
