Hardware Podcasts

Episode 68: Bat-inspired robots - Rolf Mueller

Robot Talk · 12 Jan 2024 · 28m · Episode 68

AI in practice: one real use of AI described

What this episode covers

Rolf Mueller, a professor of mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech, discusses his work on biomimetic flapping-wing robots and sonar systems designed to navigate complex natural environments. He explains how bats offload signal processing into their physical ear structures, enabling low-latency, low-data-rate autonomy that current robotic systems struggle to replicate. Mueller details using deep learning to extract navigation data directly from ultrasonic clutter echoes, achieving location precision comparable to GPS under foliage without building digital environment models. The research aims to apply these bio-inspired sensing and mobility principles to outdoor automation challenges like agriculture, environmental cleanup, and wildfire monitoring.

AI in practice

Where this conversation describes AI being used to build or deliver a product. Part of the AI in practice tracker.

Engineering & simulationdeep neural network6 meters precision

A deep neural network processed 15 milliseconds of ultrasonic echo data to determine the robot's location in a forest with approximately 6 meters of precision.

“we managed, we have a little nice, diverse patch of foresty on our university campus and we were able to tell our location based on 15 milliseconds of ultrasound, right? So 160th of a 2nd of an ultrasonic recording. A deep neural network was able to pull out our location with a precision of about 6 meters…”

Speaker 2 · Hear it at 16:03

Most relevant to

early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Virginia Tech, University of Brunei
Tools
LiDAR, GPS

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