The Next Byte Podcast · 14 Sept 2021 · 22m
Hosts Daniel Scott Mitchell and Farbod Moghaddam discuss biomimicry in robotics, starting with a Harvard team's creation of a 1.5-gram robotic actuator that mimics the mantis shrimp's two-latch mechanism to achieve 60 mph acceleration. They then cover research from Carnegie Mellon University's Biohybrid Organic Robotics Group (BORG), led by Professor Victoria Webster Wood, where PhD student Wen Huan developed tunable collagen tendons using electrocompaction and AI to create biodegradable, biohybrid robots for environmental safety.
Where this conversation describes AI being used to build or deliver a product. Part of the AI in practice tracker.
Engineering & simulationdeep neural network
A deep neural network was trained on experimental data to predict the electrocompaction parameters needed to produce collagen tendons with specific physical properties for robotics applications.
“Sun was able to come up with this framework of what do I need to tune to get what I want to get? And he actually came up with a deep neural network that can tell you that from his experiments.”
Speaker 2 · Hear it at 17:48
Engineering & simulation
Computer scientists used computer vision to analyze slow-motion footage of mantis shrimp tails, plotting the movement data to inform the mechanical design of a robotic actuator.
“The mechanical engineers and the roboticist built a robotic actuator that has very similar movements to the manta shrimp. So the so what here is, okay, it moves like the manta shrimp. Does it pack the same punch, right? That's what we all care about.”
Speaker 1 · Hear it at 6:54
early-stage companies
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Maria Guix, a senior researcher at the University of Barcelona’s ChemInFlow lab, discusses her work on miniaturized living robots that combine synthetic structures with living muscle cells. She explains how these biohybrid entities, ranging from jellyfish-inspired designs to spring-based walkers, utilize self-stimulation and anisotropy to achieve motion without central nervous control. Guix highlights the challenges of keeping the biological components alive through continuous feeding and waste management, while noting their potential for drug delivery and personalized medicine in the coming decade.
Valentina Lo Gatto, a PhD student at the Bristol Robotics Lab, explains her jellyfish-inspired soft robot and salt-inspired colony robots designed for exploring subsurface oceans on moons like Europa. David Hardman, a PhD student at the University of Cambridge, discusses bio-inspired soft sensors and biodegradable gelatin-based materials for agricultural and medical applications. Adrian Thomas, founder of Animal Dynamics, describes how his company uses bio-inspiration to design the 'Stork' cargo drone and 'Skeeter Dragonfly' surveillance drone, focusing on aerodynamic efficiency and control bandwidth derived from animal flight.
Isabella Fiorello, a Junior Group Leader at the University of Freiburg, explains her work on biohybrid soft robots that embed plant tissues, such as Avena sterilis awns, into synthetic materials to create autonomous, biodegradable actuators. She details how these plant-inspired mechanisms enable robots to move through soil for precision agriculture applications, like targeted fertilizer delivery, and discusses potential uses in space exploration for terraforming. Fiorello also describes her PhD-era work on micro-hooks inspired by Gallumaparina leaves, which allow reversible attachment to various surfaces including plant tissue for targeted molecule delivery.
Helmut Hauser, an Associate Professor in Robotics at the University of Bristol, explains morphological computation, where robot bodies exploit physical properties for sensing and control. He discusses bio-inspired examples like swimming dead trout and erodium seeds, and details a simulation project where a frog robot grows from a tadpole to optimize reinforcement learning. Hauser also describes using 3D-printed spider webs for flow sensing and the potential of growing robots using biological cells.
Chapa Sirithunge, a Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellow at the University of Cambridge, discusses her research into bio-inspired robotics, specifically designing parametric robotic hands based on primate anatomy and the concept of 'biosimplification'. She explains how studying the flexible middle finger of the Aye-aye primate and the evolutionary history of primate hands informs the creation of versatile, open-source robotic hand designs with over 50 customizable parameters. Sirithunge also details her current work on improving safety on construction sites by integrating minimal sensor arrays and control algorithms into existing heavy machinery to create 'virtual repellents' between operators and moving parts.
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