As anyone who has ever attempted to smash one knows, cockroaches
are among God's most agile creatures. They can achieve speeds
of 50 times their body length per second, darting to safety before
your rolled-up newspaper is anywhere near wreaking its vengeance.
That ability, researchers have concluded, makes them an excellent
model system to learn how to make nimble, maneuverable robots.
All of which explains the smile that came to Alan Bowling's face
last spring when the Notre Dame assistant professor of mechanical
engineering examined the equations and analysis of his graduate
student Yanto Go.
When Bowling compared the theoretical results with the cockroach
experimental findings of University of California biologist Robert
Full, the results matched up perfectly. "Our analysis predicted
that you will achieve the greatest acceleration by pushing off
at about mid-stride, and that's precisely what Full's experimental
results show," Bowling says. "As far as we know, we are the first
to get the theory that would predict this behavior. Basically
we have an analysis that looks at the equations of motion and
from that we are able to determine how well a legged system can
use ground contact to produce acceleration."
Using that information, Bowling and his research group hope
to develop agile locomotion in a legged robot. Legged locomotion
is superior to wheels, the ND engineer explains, because it is
more maneuverable and better at moving across uneven or obstacle-filled
terrain.
(January 2005)
