{"667659":{"#nid":"667659","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Scurrying Centipedes Inspire Many-Legged Robots That Can Traverse Difficult Landscapes","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003ECentipedes are known for their wiggly walk. With tens to hundreds of legs, they can traverse any terrain without stopping. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u201cWhen you see a scurrying centipede, you\u0027re basically seeing an animal that inhabits a world that is very different than our world of movement,\u201d said \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/physics.gatech.edu\/user\/daniel-goldman\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EDaniel Goldman\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E, the Dunn Family Professor in the \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/physics.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003ESchool of Physics\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E. \u201cOur movement is largely dominated by inertia. If I swing my leg, I land on my foot and I move forward. But in the world of centipedes, if they stop wiggling their body parts and limbs, they basically stop moving instantly.\u201d\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EIntrigued to see if the many limbs could be helpful for locomotion in this world, a team of physicists, engineers, and mathematicians at the Georgia Institute of Technology are using this style of movement to their advantage. They developed a new theory of multilegged locomotion and created many-legged robotic models, discovering the robot with redundant legs could move across uneven surfaces without any additional sensing or control technology as the theory predicted.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EThese robots can move over complex, bumpy terrain \u2014 and there is potential to use them for agriculture, space exploration, and even search and rescue. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EThe researchers presented their work in the paper\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003Es,\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E \u201c\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/science.ade4985\u0022\u003EMultilegged Matter Transport: A Framework for Locomotion on Noisy Landscapes\u003C\/a\u003E,\u201d in \u003Cem\u003EScience\u003C\/em\u003E in May and \u201c\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.2213698120\u0022\u003ESelf-Propulsion via Slipping: Frictional Swimming in Multilegged Locomotors\u003C\/a\u003E,\u201d in \u003Cem\u003EProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences\u003C\/em\u003E in \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EMarch.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EA Leg Up\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EFor the \u003Cem\u003EScience \u003C\/em\u003Epaper, the researchers were motivated by mathematician Claude Shannon\u2019s communication theory, which demonstrates how to reliably transmit signals over distance, to understand why a multilegged robot was so successful at locomotion. The theory of communication suggests that one way to ensure a message gets from point A to point B on a noisy line isn\u2019t to send it as an analog signal, but to break it into discrete digital units and repeat these units with an appropriate code.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u201cWe were inspired by this theory, and we tried to see if redundancy could be helpful in matter transportation,\u201d said Baxi Chong, a physics postdoctoral researcher. \u201cSo, we started this project to see what would happen if we had more legs on the robot: four, six, eight legs, and even 16 legs.\u201d\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EA team led by Chong, including \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/math.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Mathematics\u003C\/a\u003E postdoctoral fellow Daniel Irvine and Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sites.google.com\/site\/grrigg\/\u0022\u003EGreg Blekherman\u003C\/a\u003E, developed a theory that proposes that adding leg pairs to the robot increases its ability to move robustly over challenging surfaces \u2014 a concept they call spatial redundancy. This redundancy makes the robot\u2019s legs successful on their own without the need for sensors to interpret the environment. If one leg falters, the abundance of legs keeps it moving regardless. In effect, the robot becomes a reliable system to transport itself and even a load from A to B on difficult or \u201cnoisy\u201d landscapes. The concept is comparable to how punctuality can be guaranteed on wheeled transport if the track or rail is smooth enough but without having to engineer the environment to create this punctuality.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u201cWith an advanced bipedal robot, many sensors are typically required to control it in real time,\u201d Chong said. \u201cBut in applications such as search and rescue, exploring Mars, or even micro robots, there is a need to drive a robot with limited sensing. There are many reasons for such sensor-free initiative. The sensors can be expensive and fragile,\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E \u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003Eor the environments can change so fast that it doesn\u2019t allow enough sensor-controller response time.\u201d\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003ETo test this, Juntao He, a Ph.D. student in robotics, conducted a series of experiments where he and Daniel Soto, a master\u2019s graduate in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.me.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EGeorge W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E, built terrains to mimic an inconsistent natural environment. He then tested the robot by increasing its number of legs by two each time, starting with six and eventually expanding to 16. As the leg count increased, the robot could more agilely move across the terrain, even without sensors, as the theory predicted. Eventually, they tested the robot outdoors on real terrain, where it was able to traverse in a variety of environments. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u201cIt\u0027s truly impressive to witness the multilegged robot\u0027s proficiency in navigating both lab-based terrains and outdoor environments,\u201d Juntao said. \u201cWhile bipedal and quadrupedal robots heavily rely on sensors to traverse complex terrain, our multilegged robot utilizes leg redundancy and can accomplish similar tasks with open-loop control.\u201d\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003ENext Steps\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EThe researchers are already applying their discoveries to farming. Goldman has co-founded a company that aspires to use these robots to weed farmland where weedkillers are ineffective. \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u201cThey\u2019re kind of like a Roomba but outside for complex ground,\u201d Goldman said. \u201cA Roomba works because it has wheels that function well on flat ground. Until the development of our framework, we couldn\u2019t confidently predict locomotor reliability on bumpy, rocky, debris-ridden terrain. We now have the beginnings of such a scheme, which could be used to ensure that our robots traverse a crop field in a certain amount of time.\u201d\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EThe researchers also want to refine the robot. They know why the centipede robot framework is functional, but now they\u2019re determining the optimal number of legs to achieve motion without sensing in a way that is cost-effective yet still retains the benefits.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u201cIn this paper, we asked, \u2018How do you predict the minimum number of legs to achieve such tasks?\u2019\u201d Chong said. \u201cCurrently we only prove that the minimum number exists, but we don\u0027t know that exact number of legs needed. Further, we need to better understand the tradeoff between energy, speed, power, and robustness in such a complex system.\u201d\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003ECITATION: \u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EBaxi Chong\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E et al.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E, \u003Cspan\u003EMultilegged matter transport: A framework for locomotion on noisy landscapes.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EScience\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/em\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E380\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E,\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E509-515\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E(2023).\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EDOI:\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1126\/science.ade4985\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E10.1126\/science.ade4985\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cspan\u003EIntrigued to see if the many limbs could be helpful for locomotion in this world, a team of physicists, engineers, and mathematicians at the Georgia Institute of Technology are using this style of movement to their advantage. They developed a new theory of multilegged locomotion and created many-legged robotic models, discovering the robot with redundant legs could move across uneven surfaces without any additional sensing or control technology as the theory predicted.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Researchers developed a new theory of multilegged locomotion and created many-legged robotic models, discovering the robot with redundant legs could move across uneven surfaces without any additional sensing or control technology as the theory predicted."}],"uid":"34541","created_gmt":"2023-05-05 14:41:48","changed_gmt":"2023-05-10 20:47:13","author":"Tess Malone","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2023-05-05T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2023-05-05T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"670781":{"id":"670781","type":"image","title":"Centipedes are known for their wiggly walk. With tens to hundreds of legs, they can traverse any terrain without stopping.  ","body":null,"created":"1683751523","gmt_created":"2023-05-10 20:45:23","changed":"1683751523","gmt_changed":"2023-05-10 20:45:23","alt":"Centipedes are known for their wiggly walk. With tens to hundreds of legs, they can traverse any terrain without stopping.  ","file":{"fid":"253709","name":"0A6A7294.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2023\/05\/10\/0A6A7294.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2023\/05\/10\/0A6A7294.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":47280,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2023\/05\/10\/0A6A7294.jpg?itok=o-h_WJAN"}},"670782":{"id":"670782","type":"image","title":"The research team with their robots.","body":null,"created":"1683751552","gmt_created":"2023-05-10 20:45:52","changed":"1683751552","gmt_changed":"2023-05-10 20:45:52","alt":"The research team with their robots.","file":{"fid":"253710","name":"0A6A7322[53] copy.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2023\/05\/10\/0A6A7322%5B53%5D%20copy.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2023\/05\/10\/0A6A7322%5B53%5D%20copy.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":593108,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2023\/05\/10\/0A6A7322%5B53%5D%20copy.jpg?itok=JliOCuZg"}}},"media_ids":["670781","670782"],"related_files":{"253683":{"fid":null,"name":"Centipede Robot","file_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2023\/05\/05\/0A6A7294.jpg","file_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2023\/05\/05\/0A6A7294.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":286641,"description":null},"253684":{"fid":null,"name":"Goldman lab","file_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2023\/05\/05\/0A6A7322%20%281%29.jpg","file_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2023\/05\/05\/0A6A7322%20%281%29.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":20916986,"description":null}},"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"126011","name":"School of Physics"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"},{"id":"192253","name":"cos-neuro"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39461","name":"Manufacturing, Trade, and Logistics"},{"id":"39521","name":"Robotics"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETess Malone, Senior Research Writer\/Editor\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["tess.malone@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}