IEEE Future Directions
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Most people are not fond of cockroaches, many are decidedly averse to the point of trying to smash them if they see one scuttling around in their kitchen (with varying degree of success).
Scientists, on the other hand are fascinated by roaches and try to learn from them. A cockroach can withstand a weight 900 times its own weight (as if you would be able to survive with some 30 SUV on your back) thanks to an extremely flexible exoskeleton, they can squeeze up to 60% of their body size (imagine yourself wiggling through a roof drain pipe), they can resist radiation 5 times better than us (other insects can resist up to 50 times the dose that would kill us) and their offsprings can run as fast as their parents as they are one day old!
Researchers at Harvard have been working for a few years now to develop mini robots, HAMR: Harvard Ambulatory MicroRobots, taking inspiration from roaches and their last release HAMR-F has movement and speed that compare to the ones of roaches with a comparable size and weight . It is also the first version that can move around untethered (no need for an external power connection) with a speed of four times their body length per second (tethered version can achieve a speed ten times their body length per second -actually the speediest roaches are still outperforming them with a reaction time of 8.2 ms and top speed of 80cm per second, that is 30 times their body length).
The HAMR-F weights 2.8g and it is powered by a micro 8mA lithium polymer battery. The “on board” processor, its brain, can only manage wireless communication and control movement using four oscillating “legs” and 8 piezoelectric actuators.
The goal is to increase the microchip power to embed AI and make HAMR autonomous whilst keeping its power requirement low to operate untethered.
Researchers foresee HAMR used to explore tiny crevices, as an example under a crumpled building in the aftermath of an earthquake. The HAMR can carry around a load half its weight, and current miniaturisation of image digital sensors are compatible with this. So one could equip a HAMR with a stripped down digital camera and send it on autonomous exploration. Swarms of HAMRs could cooperate directly in an autonomous way or indirectly by relating their sensory experience to a control center. Both ways are pursuable and both are needed.
In the longer term we can imagine these swarms as symbiotic extensions of rescue teams where a rescuer looking at rubble in a fallen building can actually direct the swarm to explore and report through sensation that she would feel what is hiding beneath. It is no longer science fiction, it is a research endeavour going on.
