Biomimetic Robotics News

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Robotic Drone to Study Biodiverse Ecosystems in Peru’s Tropical Cloud Forest

As U.N. climate talks continue in Warsaw, soon a flying, insect-like robot developed by scientists at Wake Forest University will give an unprecedented look at Peru’s tropical cloud forest, one of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems and a key indicator of global climate change.

22 Nov 2013

Penguins Inspire Novel Spherical Joint Mechanism for Propulsion Systems

Back in 1991, Nature published a picture from the IMAX movie Antarctica, along with the caption: “Emperor penguins may be waddling jokes on land, but underwater they can turn into regular rockets…accelerating from 0 to 7 m/s in less than a second.”

16 Nov 2013

Study on Stingray Movement for Next Generation UUVs to be Presented at 66th APS Division of Fluid Dynamics Meeting

Stingrays swim through water with such ease that researchers from the University at Buffalo and Harvard University are studying how their movements could be used to design more agile and fuel-efficient unmanned underwater vehicles.

14 Nov 2013

Robosaur Helps Study How Dinosaurs Walked

Kingsbury, a doctoral candidate in physics and researcher in the Complex Rheology and Biomechanics (CRAB) Lab at Georgia Tech, is working with Associate Professor Daniel Goldman and Stephen Gatesy at Brown University to build a “Robosaur.” The idea is to study how dinosaurs walked, with the goal of using the secrets of the past to enhance the future. Their project is up for funding on Georgia Tech Starter, a new peer-reviewed crowd-funding website.

14 Nov 2013

Georgia Tech Starter Supports BioBot and Robosaur Projects

In need of funding for a creative research project? Well, a new Georgia Tech-backed crowdfunding website may be just the resource you’re looking for.

13 Nov 2013

Novel Device Pumps Human Waste into ‘Engine Room’ of Self-Sustaining Robot

A new device capable of pumping human waste into the "engine room" of a self-sustaining robot has been created by a group of researchers from Bristol.

8 Nov 2013

Glass Knifefish Achieve Better Locomotor Performance than Current Robotic Systems

For nearly 20 years, Professor Eric Fortune has studied glass knifefish, a species of three-inch long electric fish that lives in the Amazon Basin. In his laboratory he tries to understand how their tiny brains control complex electrical behaviors. But he could not help but be intrigued by the special "ribbon fin" that knifefish use to swim back and forth.

8 Nov 2013

Researchers Study Stingray Movements for Building More Agile, Maneuverable Unmanned Underwater Vehicles

Recent studies show stingrays are the hybrid cars of the ocean.

8 Nov 2013

Animal Mechanics to Control Mutually Opposing Forces Inspire Improved Control Systems for Small Robots

A quirk of nature has long baffled biologists: Why do animals push in directions that don’t point toward their goal, such as the side-to-side sashaying of a running lizard or cockroach? An engineer building a robot would likely avoid these movements because they seem wasteful. So why do animals behave this way?

5 Nov 2013

Researchers Measure Ankle Stiffness Using ‘Anklebot’ Robot

For most healthy bipeds, the act of walking is seldom given a second thought: One foot follows the other, and the rest of the body falls in line, supported by a system of muscle, tendon, and bones.

28 Oct 2013