Within the field of roboticsMany are the teams of engineers and designers who try to be inspired by nature to develop systems and prototypes that go far beyond, in terms of capabilities and dexterity, than we can imagine. Until now, it seemed that it was very difficult to precisely beat the structural capacities of living animals, which have been evolving for thousands of years, although, thanks to projects like this, it seems that we are a little closer to achieving it.
On this occasion I want to present you the work carried out by a group of researchers from the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (Switzerland) who, after months of research and development have managed to create a six-legged robot that has proven to be even faster and more efficient than any insect with the same number of legs. Undoubtedly, a milestone more than interesting since managing to optimize an evolution of thousands of years, as you will surely be imagining, is not an easy task.
This peculiar robot is faster moving on the ground than any known living animal with six legs.
As the researchers themselves have commented, apparently six-legged animals, when moving, always have three of their limbs resting on the ground at the same time, two on one side and one on the opposite, something that, According to those responsible for the project, it is effective on insects because they have pads on their legs that allow them move around walls and ceilings but what, in the case of robots, it does not present any type of advantage.
After focusing all his efforts on designing an ideal solution to this problem, it was discovered that a bipod gait in which only two limbs touched the ground at any one time was much more efficient and in turn favored the robot to move. move at a much faster speed across the ground.
As explained by pavan ramdya, one of the directors of this work:
Our findings support the idea that most insects use tripod gait effectively on three-dimensional surfaces, because their legs have adhesive properties, something that is not entirely efficient in a robot that does not have this ability.