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SummarySingaporean researchers,led by by professor Hirotaka Sato,describe their work about designing robots--It's possible to use a living insect as a platform to develop a living insect-machine hybrid robot.Such a hybrid retains the complex structure of the insect's rigid exokeleton,complaint joints,and soft actuators, as well as the insect’s locomotion capability, and it does so while enabling high controllability and low power consumption. Such an insect-machine hybrid robot is made of a living insect platform with a miniaturized electronic device attached on it to control it.   By using the insect itself as the robot, researchers bypass the complex processes of designing and fabricating the robot body, using the insect’s muscular system as the soft actuators and flexible joints and its nervous system as part of the control system. About BeetleThis kind of particular beetle is a a darkling beetle. It’s small (2 to 2.5 centimeters), lightweight (about 0.5 gram), and lives for three months or so, which is a long time for a little bug. A backpack of electronics interfaces with the beetle’s antennae, and when the antennae are stimulated with an electric pulse, it activates the beetle’s built-in escape mechanism, fooling it into thinking it’s running into something and causing it to turn. The picture is from Nanyang Technological University AdvantageThe advantage of doing things this way (as opposed to direct nerve or muscle stimulation, something that the researchers also experimented with) is that the beetle’s brain is still in charge of controlling its limbs such that it’ll respond to high-level controls with adaptive gaits and such, making locomotion a much simpler problem to solve. With just two coin cell batteries, the cybeetle can be controlled for 8 hours, which is long enough for it to travel over a kilometer at an average speed of 4 cm/s. The following picture is from  Cyborg Insect: Ultralightweight Living Legged Robot The key to effectively controlling an insect using these methods is that the response to the antenna stimulation can’t be binary, since you’d end up with a level of control that would often be too coarse to be useful. By changing the frequency of the stimulation, the researchers were able to modulate how sharp of a turn the insect took: Increasing the stimulation frequency also increased the insect’s turning rate, with a success rate of over 85 percent. Stimulating both antennae at once causes the insect to back up, and it moves forward by default, giving you just about as much control as you can hope for. Living Robots' DifferencesElectrical stimulation is commonly used for neuromuscular stimulation in cyborg insects such as cockroaches, giant beetles, and moths. There are other groups working on antenna stimulation but they were not able to grade the response of the insect, which is very important for developing a precise closed-loop control system to make the cyborg insect work autonomously. The giant cyborg beetle mainly relies on neuromuscular stimulation of direct flight muscles for flight control and leg muscles of the fore legs for walking control. Ideally, stimulating the muscle would be more precise as we can perfectly control the individual legs, but it costs more in implantation and computing to plan and stimulate all the individual muscles for walking. Antenna stimulation is simpler and easier than stimulating all the individual muscles thus it helps us to simplify the hardware and control system a lot. Hopefully, in the near future, we can control the cyborg beetle as precisely as any other artificial motor. The zophobas beetle were used to develop this cyborg insect because its small size (2-2.5 cm) would help it to access the small rubbles system easily at disaster sites, where the cockroach and giant beetle can not get in. Moreover, a swarming of flying and walking cyborg insects of various sizes would increase the coverage and reduce the searching time, thus enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of search and rescue operations. Control IssueFor walking cyborg insects, researchers are able to integrate external sensors into the backpack as the insect is able to carry loads up to double its weight. We are developing a new backpack with integrated sensors for human detection and navigation. It would help us to detect victims when using cyborg insects at disaster sites, and enable the cyborg insects to work autonomously. On the other hand,research could release hundreds of flying and crawling cyborg insects to the sites as the price for one cyborg insect would be negligible once mass produced for a disaster scenario.The insects can move freely themselves into the collapsed structures and send back maps of their positions and environmental conditions so that the rescue team can plan for their action efficiently on how and where they should access. Once an insect detects a victim, it will send an alarm to the rescue team and switch to autonomous control mode to move around the victim for confirmation and build a clearer map of surrounding environment. At the end of the rescue operation, all the insects will autonomously return to the control base. I know that it sounds like science fiction, but we are in fact working to realize it. Researcher's GoalNow,researchers are working on a feedback control system to precisely control the insect locomotion with high reliability. We are also developing a new backpack with a navigation system and environmental sensors designed to promote fully autonomous and practical cyborg insects. For real applications, we need to maintain the power supply for the cyborg insect (mainly for the electronics backpack), which is currently a huge challenge if we just rely on the battery. So we are developing a biofuel cell, which is able to convert biofuel inside the insect to electric current for running the control backpack. It will help to maintain the backpack power for long-term use. Article resources: journal Soft RoboticsAtticle edited by kynix 

SummaryThe robot comes perfectly if they can walk more naturally for humans.However,it's not an easy job for robots and their designers. Walking on two legs is actually a complicated task,requiring several muscles to perform delicate balancing acts.That's why in spite of years of major technological advancements in the field,humanoid robots are still far from being able to get around easily and reliably. Engineers at EPFL's Biorobotics Laboratory are testing new walking algoritms on a plateform called COMAN, short for COmpliant HuMANoid. This 95-cm-tall humanoid is designed specifically for studying walking – which is why it has no head. COMAN was developed under the EU AMARSi project and is being used by several research teams. The EPFL team is looking specifically at the "brains" of the machine. "We developed algorithms that can improve the robot's balance while it's walking," says Hamed Razavi, a researcher scientist at the Biorobotics Lab.  Body One:Climbing Stairs and Opening Doors The algorithms are geared towards three types of realworld applications. The first is carrying out rescue missions in disastrous scenarios. "In environments designed by humans - like a nuclear power plant where there are stairs to climb and doors to open – humanoid robots can get around more easily than robots with wheels," says Razavi. The second is helping with tasks like carrying heavy boxes or moving objects (see box). And the third is creating exoskeletons for the disabled. "Making the robots more stable is just the tip of the iceberg," says Razavi. The next step is refining the algorithms so that the humanoids have a wider range of movement and can overcome obstacles and walk on irregular or sloped surfaces. Two:In Harmony with Symmetries One of COMAN's distinguishing features is its joints,which are integrated with elastic elements that give it greater flexibility when performing different tasks.The EPFL team came up with a novel control algorithm for the robot, based on the existing symmetries in the structure and dynamics of the robot' as well as the mathematical equations representing the robot dynamics. "You could say we're working in harmony with these symmetries rather than against them. As a result, we obtain a more natural and robust walking gait," says Razavi. The control algorithm uses sophisticated computer programs to carefully analyze the date received from the robot – including its position, velocity, joint angles, etc. – and sends appropriate commands to the motors, telling them what to do in order to maintain the robot's balance. "For example, if someone pushes COMAN, for example, our algorithms will calculate exactly where its foot should land in order to counteract the perturbation," says Razavi. Three: Humanoids Helping Humans As part of this project,Jessica Lanini and Hamed Razavi studied how two people carrying an object together are able to walk,turn and speed up in a coordinated manner - without communicating with each other.Their findings,recently published in PLOS ONE,indicate that the two people automatically synchronize their steps, like a quadruped. Now the researchers plan to apply their results to humanoid robots. Lanini explained:"Whether for manufacturing or natural disasters, we need robots that can interact with humans and help us carry heavy objects,but such robots don't exist. That's because, in order to operate safely and effectively, the robots would need to be able to make decisions and respond to unexpected circumstances." But such robots don't exist. The reason is that in order to operate safely and effectively, the robots would need to be able to make decisions and respond to unexpected circumstances." Article provided by  Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne. 

Access to clean, safe water is one of the world’s pressing needs, yet today’s water distribution systems lose an average of 20 percent of their supply because of leaks. These leaks not only make shortages worse but also can cause serious structural damage to buildings and roads by undermining foundations, which is a great loss.Many property losses experienced by business owners involve water damage caused by leaky pipes. Water can be very destructive whether it seeps from a loose fitting or gushes from a ruptured main.Unfortunately, leak detection systems are expensive and slow to operate — and they don’t work well in systems that use wood, clay, or plastic pipes, which account for the majority of systems in the developing world. Now, a new system developed by researchers at MIT could provide a fast, inexpensive solution that can find even tiny leaks with pinpoint precision, no matter what the pipes are made of. The system, which has been under development and testing for nine years by professor of mechanical engineering Kamal Youcef-Toumi, graduate student You Wu, and two others, will be described in detail at the upcoming IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) in September. Meanwhile, the team is carrying out tests this summer on 12-inch concrete water-distribution pipes under the city of Monterrey, Mexico. The system uses a small, rubbery robotic device that looks something like an oversized badminton birdie. The device can be inserted into the water system through any fire hydrant. It then moves passively with the flow, logging its position as it goes. It detects even small variations in pressure by sensing the pull at the edges of its soft rubber skirt, which fills the diameter of of the pipe.(The fast, inexpensive robotic device that developed by engineers from MIT can find even tiny leaks in pipes with pinpoint precision, no matter what the pipes are made of.)This device contains two parts: "skirt" sensor and soft body drone. It is then retrieved using a net through another hydrant, and its data is uploaded. No digging is required, and there is no need for any interruption of the water service. In addition to the passive device that is pushed by the water flow, the team also produced an active version that can control its motion.Monterrey itself has a strong incentive to take part in this study, since it loses an estimated 40 percent of its water supply to leaks every year, costing the city about $80 million in lost revenue. Leaks can also lead to contamination of the water supply when polluted water backs up into the distribution pipes. The MIT team, called PipeGuard, intends to commercialize its robotic detection system to help alleviate such losses. In Saudi Arabia, where most drinking water is provided through expensive desalination plants, some 33 percent is lost through leakage. That’s why that desert nation’s King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals has sponsored and collaborated on much of the MIT team’s work, including successful field tests there earlier this year that resulted in some further design improvements to the system, Youcef-Toumi says. DKNY CEO Caroline Brown, said “PipeGuard has created a simple, pragmatic and elegant solution to a complex problem. … This robot is a great example of utilizing smart design to simplify complexity and maximize efficiency.”

Three fingers on a new soft robotic gripper each have specialized sensors that can estimate the size and shape of an object accurately enough to identify it from a set of multiple items.  Robots have many strong suits, but delicacy traditionally hasn't been one of them. Rigid limbs and digits make it difficult for them to grasp, hold, and manipulate a range of everyday objects without dropping or crushing them. Recently, researchers from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have discovered that the solution may be to turn to a substance more commonly associated with new buildings and Silly Putty: silicone. At a conference this month, researchers from CSAIL Director Daniela Rus' Distributed Robotics Lab demonstrated a 3-D-printed robotic hand made out of silicone rubber that can lift and handle objects as delicate as an egg and as thin as a compact disc. Just as impressively, its three fingers have special sensors that can estimate the size and shape of an object accurately enough to identify it from a set of multiple items. "Robots are often limited in what they can do because of how hard it is to interact with objects of different sizes and materials," Rus says. "Grasping is an important step in being able to do useful tasks; with this work we set out to develop both the soft hands and the supporting control and planning systems that make dynamic grasping possible." The paper, which was co-written by Rus and graduate student Bianca Homberg, PhD candidate Robert Katzschmann, and postdoc Mehmet Dogar, will be presented at this month's International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. The hard science of soft robots The gripper, which can also pick up such items as a tennis ball, a Rubik's cube and a Beanie Baby, is part of a larger body of work out of Rus' lab at CSAIL aimed at showing the value of so-called "soft robots" made of unconventional materials such as silicone, paper, and fiber. Researchers say that soft robots have a number of advantages over "hard" robots, including the ability to handle irregularly-shaped objects, squeeze into tight spaces, and readily recover from collisions. "A robot with rigid hands will have much more trouble with tasks like picking up an object," Homberg says. "This is because it has to have a good model of the object and spend a lot of time thinking about precisely how it will perform the grasp." Soft robots represent an intriguing new alternative. However, one downside to their extra flexibility (or "compliance") is that they often have difficulty accurately measuring where an object is, or even if they have successfully picked it up at all. That's where the CSAIL team's "bend sensors" come in. When the gripper hones in an object, the fingers send back location data based on their curvature. Using this data, the robot can pick up an unknown object and compare it to the existing clusters of data points that represent past objects. With just three data points from a single grasp, the robot's algorithms can distinguish between objects as similar in size as a cup and a lemonade bottle. "As a human, if you're blindfolded and you pick something up, you can feel it and still understand what it is," says Katzschmann. "We want to develop a similar skill in robots—essentially, giving them 'sight' without them actually being able to see." The team is hopeful that, with further sensor advances, the system could eventually identify dozens of distinct objects, and be programmed to interact with them differently depending on their size, shape, and function. How it works（“We want to ... give robots‘sight’ without them actually being able to see,” says MIT grad student Robert Katzschmann. ） Researchers control the gripper via a series of pistons that push pressurized air through the silicone fingers. The pistons cause little bubbles to expand in the fingers, spurring them to stretch and bend. The hand can grip using two types of grasps: "enveloping grasps," where the object is entirely contained within the gripper, and "pinch grasps," where the object is held by the tips of the fingers. Outfitted for the popular Baxter manufacturing robot, the gripper significantly outperformed Baxter's default gripper, which was unable to pick up a CD or piece of paper and was prone to completely crushing items like a soda can. Like Rus' previous robotic arm, the fingers are made of silicone rubber, which was chosen because of its qualities of being both relatively stiff, but also flexible enough to expand with the pressure from the pistons. Meanwhile, the gripper's interface and exterior finger-molds are 3-D-printed, which means the system will work on virtually any robotic platform. In the future, Rus says the team plans to put more time into improving and adding more sensors that will allow the gripper to identify a wider variety of objects. "If we want robots in human-centered environments, they need to be more adaptive and able to interact with objects whose shape and placement are not precisely known," Rus says. "Our dream is to develop a robot that, like a human, can approach an unknown object, big or small, determine its approximate shape and size, and figure out how to interface with it in one seamless motion." Ref.KY45-TSL1401CLKY45-11242-11

In this internet-connected age, all of our devices are constantly communicating with each other. Chances are you've got a phone, a laptop, a television, a car radio, maybe a smart home device or some other WiFi-capable appliance, along with a smartwatch or Bluetooth speaker. All of these devices are talking with each other and the wider world constantly. This is all done through radio signals. All of your devices communicate by sending and receiving radio signals at specific frequencies. But why don't cellphone calls collide against Wi-Fi signals? Mostly, it's because there are agreed-upon standards for what devices get to broadcast at what frequency. The radio spectrum is heavily partitioned so different kinds of traffic stay in their own lanes and all the data gets where it needs to go. A similar situation is playing out underwater. Under the sea, there are submarines, research vessels, robots, buoys, and tracking tags on animals, and they've all got to communicate. But radio signals don't work underwater, so the established radio communication standards are useless. Instead, underwater signals are sent via acoustic waves, but until recently there was no standard for which frequencies to use. That's all been changed now, thanks to a new standard being pioneered by NATO. Called JANUS—after the Roman god of gateways—the new system partitions the range of possible underwater communication frequencies and lets everything communicate with everything else. The JANUS protocol establishes a single frequency—11.5 kilohertz—that is reserved for initial communication between two systems, as well as frequencies for announcing a system's presence to everyone nearby. Once two crafts or robots make contact with each other, they can switch to a different frequency for extended communication. JANUS is opening the door to a better way to communicate underwater. Because of this new standard, all kinds of new collaborations are now possible. Entire fleets of robots can communicate with each other at a distance, communications buoys can send signals from the air into the water, and everyone can finally talk to one another. Considering the ocean floor is less explored than outer space, it's about time we figured out a way to communicate from there. Ref.CC3000MODRESP8266

Detecting temperature is an important function of skin. Snakes can use their skin to track warm-blooded prey, even in the dark. Now a highly sensitive, flexible sensor film could also make this characteristic available for robots and prosthetics. Whether in factories, the office or the kitchen: Robots continue to encroach on various aspects of our lives. When it comes to safety, that increases requirements for the “man-machine interface” considerably. Which is why developing sensitive robot skins has become a hot topic in robot research. After all, “collisions” can only be avoided if you can “see” your counterpart—as quickly and accurately as possible. Methods for doing so range from image processing using mechanical devices to contact-free sensor solutions. For example, scientists at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have been working on artificial skin made of small hexagon plates with infrared, temperature and acceleration sensors. The infrared sensors register when things come close to the robot. Researchers at ETH Zurich and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) are pursuing a more natural approach. Their temperature sensor is based on the plant material pectin. Like the snake’s extremely sensitive pit organ that can sense a mammal’s warm body up to a meter away, it can precisely measure temperatures to one hundredth of a degree. That is twice as sensitive as human skin.(A highly sensitive sensor film for robots measures temperatures with an accuracy of one hundredth of a degree. .)(Image: Caltech) “Cyber wood” as a temperature sensorDiscovering the artificial “snake organ” was actually a coincidence. It turns out that the electrical conductivity of cell walls in trees depends on temperature. That is because of the plant material pectin, which can also be used in the kitchen as a gelling agent for puddings and jams. Measurements that were taken on a type of “cyber wood” made of pectin and carbon nanotubes revealed that the higher the temperature, the more free calcium ions were formed at the contact points between two sugar molecules. Electrical conductivity increases proportionally. That is how the sensor idea was born. All that was missing was the “skin”. The answer: A 20-micrometer-thick film made of simple pectin gel laced with a calcium solution. Safe human-robot collaborationInitial testing revealed that the ultrathin transparent film that can be formed into nearly any shape can measure temperatures from 10 to 50 degrees Celsius with a precision of one hundredth of a degree. Supposedly, the “prey” that was used was a teddy bear—fresh from the microwave. To spatially resolve hot or cold sensations like human skin, researchers attached several electrodes along the long and short sides of a piece of “skin” measuring 25 square centimeters. The resulting grid made it possible to determine the position of temperature changes at specific locations. The “snake skin” is extremely easy to make and is more robust and less prone to interference than existing flexible temperature sensors equipped with transistors. After improving the computer algorithms used to analyze the electrode signals and improving the electrical contacts, the “snake skin” should be ready for a field trial in robotics or prosthetics. Ref.KY32-DS18B20KY45-LM61CIM3XKY45-LM35DT