Robotics and cybernetics

Robotics and cybernetics

1. Robot micro aircraft

At Cambridge University (UK),scientists are developing robots that can fly like insects. The technology that is being developed is, it is claimed, capable of revolutionising our understanding of the nature of flight.

In particular, the Cambridge University scientist Charles Ellington, who is known for his research in the aerodynamics of insects, has developed a robot micro aircraft which he expects to produce under a new £1.6m research contract. The robot aircraft will have a 3-4in. wing-span and will be designed to fly surveillence missions inside buildings. At present it is reported that he is also working on a 3ft wingspan model that is based on a hawk moth. The craft is called an entomopter and it will use a chemical engine to flap its wings like a moth that crawls about, we are told, and also to be able to flit from in-trays and out-trays taking photgraphs and recording conversations for transmission to satellites. Readers will be forgiven for being sceptical about such a development, but we are told that there is a real need for such a robot invention. This is confirmed by the report that a joint venture with a US research group has been agreed.

It has been suggested that this new understanding of insect flight will make flapped wing flight by aircraft a possibility for the first time. Interest in the UK has not been strong and it is in the USA that researchers see this work as offering great opportunities for development.We have been reminded that nothing in creation has been developed with a fixed wing and a power thrust, but just with flapping wings.

An advisor to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, Washington, USA, has said:

Technically, this is a very exciting development. Micro air vehicles with flapping wings use different aerodynamics from birds, and I think we will continue to use fixed-wings for manned flight but this will fill one significant corner of the flight spectrum.

Currently it is reported that Charles Ellington and the nine-strong team from his laboratory at Cambridge University Department of Zoology will join scientists at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, Atlanta, USA, to develop a working entomopter. This is a three-year Darpa contract for them to build acontrollable stable, flapping machine. The new machine is likely to be powered by a reciprocating chemical muscle being developed at the Georgia Tech. Batteries are going to be too heavy and ordinary combustion engines too big for the new entomopter. The reciprocating chemical muscle has been designed by Robert Michelson of Georgia Tech, and it is described as a catalyst that breaks apart a chemical to release heat and a gas that drives the wings rapidly and releases up to one watt of electricity. Additional microelectronics controls and sensor systems will be added.

The design of the entomopter would allow it to fly as a remote controlled aircraft quietly around or in a building,for example, using its ultra sonic detectors to avoid obstacles and chemical detectors to locate humans. The interest, therefore, of the US Department of Defence is understandable. Even so, although there may be a need for a larger version of this spy robot using the insect technology, science is also being given the opportunity to learn more about aerodynamics of insects as well as the building of new chemical power devices.

2. Ocean data from roving robots

The Autonomous Lagrangian Circulation Explorer (Alace) robots have been providing essential data for a seven-year experiment based on the world's oceans.

There are more than 1,000 Alace robots drifting freely through the world's oceans. Every two weeks they surface and beam information into space about the state of the sea. Having then completed the transmission they sink back down to a depth of 1,500 metres, where they drift along with the currents. The robots were but one facet of a huge experiment to determine the nature of the world's oceans. The experimental phase is over and scientists gathered in Halifax, Canada, to make the first attempts at putting this data together.

This was the most comprehensive survey of the global oceans that has ever been undertaken. Called the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (Woce), it is part of the intergovernmental World Climate Research Program. Its success so far is due to the improved resources made available. Satellite technology, in particular, has been of great help­ researchers can now map the shape of the ocean's surface to within 3 centimeters. But of all the new developments scientists say that the Alace robots have been the most successful. Although the experimental phase is over more of the drifting robots are being deployed. Scientists say that there are plans to maintain a global array of 3,000 of them as part of an ocean-observing system.