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- Chellapurath, Mrudul, et al.
(author)
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Bioinspired robots can foster nature conservation
- 2023
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In: Frontiers in Robotics and AI. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 2296-9144. ; 10
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- We live in a time of unprecedented scientific and human progress while being increasingly aware of its negative impacts on our planet’s health. Aerial, terrestrial, and aquatic ecosystems have significantly declined putting us on course to a sixth mass extinction event. Nonetheless, the advances made in science, engineering, and technology have given us the opportunity to reverse some of our ecosystem damage and preserve them through conservation efforts around the world. However, current conservation efforts are primarily human led with assistance from conventional robotic systems which limit their scope and effectiveness, along with negatively impacting the surroundings. In this perspective, we present the field of bioinspired robotics to develop versatile agents for future conservation efforts that can operate in the natural environment while minimizing the disturbance/impact to its inhabitants and the environment’s natural state. We provide an operational and environmental framework that should be considered while developing bioinspired robots for conservation. These considerations go beyond addressing the challenges of human-led conservation efforts and leverage the advancements in the field of materials, intelligence, and energy harvesting, to make bioinspired robots move and sense like animals. In doing so, it makes bioinspired robots an attractive, non-invasive, sustainable, and effective conservation tool for exploration, data collection, intervention, and maintenance tasks. Finally, we discuss the development of bioinspired robots in the context of collaboration, practicality, and applicability that would ensure their further development and widespread use to protect and preserve our natural world.
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| 2. |
- Chellapurath, Mrudul, et al.
(author)
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USLIP dynamics emerges in underwater legged robot with foot kinematics of punting crabs
- 2024
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In: Mechatronics (Oxford). - : Elsevier BV. - 0957-4158 .- 1873-4006. ; 99
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article investigates bioinspired solutions for achieving stable dynamic gaits in legged robots through leg coordination and foot trajectories. In this study, we recorded the kinematics of underwater running of the crab, Pachygrapsus marmoratus, and implemented the parameterized foot trajectories and inter-leg coordination on an underwater legged robot, SILVER 2.0. The robot's design parameters like legs’ stiffness, leg length, and body mass are based on the Underwater Spring Loaded Inverted Pendulum (USLIP), a model that describes underwater running in animals. With this implementation, we observed the spontaneous emergence of USLIP dynamics in 20% of the strides in the robot. This approach allowed SILVER 2.0 to leverage the advantages of stable dynamic gaits while optimizing the foot trajectory and inter-leg coordination, resulting in improved locomotion performances. The robot achieved a forward velocity of 0.16 m/s, twice the value obtained in previous gaits. Our study presents a promising approach for improving the locomotion performance of legged robots, enabling their effective use in various field applications, and further confirms a broad embedding of controllers generating template dynamics.
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