A flying insect-inspired robot named Gimball crashes into obstacles instead of avoiding them.
The 13-inch robot can make its way through and obstacle-ridden course without the need for fragile object sensors, an École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne news release release reported.
"This resiliency to injury, inspired by insects, is what sets it apart from other flying robots," the news release reported.
The robot is protected by an elastic "cage" that allows it to avoid the shock caused by bumping into objects. The device uses a gyroscopic stabilization system to stay balanced, it is "Powered by twin propellers and steered by fins."
"The idea was for the robot's body to stay balanced after a collision, so that it can keep to its trajectory," EPFL PhD student Adrien Briod, said. "Its predecessors, which weren't stabilized, tended to take off in random directions after impact."
The researchers tested the robot's abilities in the forests of forests above Lausanne, Switzerland, the experiment proved to be a success.
Gimball was able to stay on course even though it collided with a number of trees. The robot could help relieve future devices of cumbersome sensors. The light-weight robot only weighs 370 grams.
"The sensors are heavy and fragile. And they can't operate in certain conditions, for example if the environment is full of smoke," Briod said. "Flying insects handle collisions quite well. For them, shocks aren't really accidents, because they're designed to bounce back from them. This is the direction we decided to take in our research," he said.
The robot could effectively maneuver even the most treacherous of terrains.
"Our objective was exactly that - to be able to operate where other robots can't go, such as a building that has collapsed in an earthquake. The on-board camera can provide valuable information to emergency personnel," Briod said.
