Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
attack in September 11, 2001. Micro-air-vehicle (MAV) with wing spans of several centimeters has
been developed using a propeller, and efforts are currently underway to produce even smaller MAV
units (http://uav.wff.nasa.gov/).
Mobility (Chapter 6): Mobility is a characteristic of animals that involves multi-functionality,
energy efficiency (not necessarily optimized), and autonomous locomotion. Animals can operate in
multiple terrains, performing various locomotion functions and combinations, including walking,
crawling, climbing (trees, cliffs, or walls), jumping and leaping, swimming, flying, grasping,
digging, and manipulating objects. Integration of such locomotion functions into a hybrid mech-
anism would potentially enable mobile transitions between air, land, and water. Making robots with
such capabilities will far exceed any biological equivalence.
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Attaching to steep walls and upside down from a ceiling: As shown in Chapter 1, the swallow is
capable of attaching itself to walls by carrying its body weight on its fingernails. The gecko is capable
of controlled adherence to rough and soft surfaces. Mimicking this capability, a gecko tape was made
by microfabrication of dense arrays of flexible plastic pillars, the geometry of which was optimized
to ensure their collective adhesion (Geim et al., 2003). This approach showed a way to manufacture
self-cleaning, reattachable dry adhesives, although problems related to the gecko tapes durability
and mass production are yet to be resolved. Generally, controlled adhesion is a capability that is
sought by roboticists to adapt into robotic devices. A four-legged robot, named Steep Terrain Access
Robot (STAR) (Badescu et al., 2005), is being developed at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and is
designed to climb rocks and steep cliffs using an ultrasonic/sonic anchor that uses low axial force to
anchor the legs (Bar-Cohen and Sherrit 2003). This robot is shown in Figure 20.2.
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Autonomous locomotion: Inspiration from biology led to the introduction of robots and systems
that operate autonomously with self-learning capability (Chapters 3, 4, and 6). Such a capability to
operate without real-time control by a human operator is critical to the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA) missions that are performed at distant extraterrestrial conditions
where remote-control operation is not feasible. The distance of millions of miles from Earth to
Mars causes a significant communication time delay, and necessitates an autonomous capability to
assure the success of the NASA planetary exploration missions.
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Sensors and feedback: The integration of sensors into biomimetic systems is critical to their
operation and it is necessary to provide closed-loop feedback to accomplish biologically inspired
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Figure 20.2 (See color insert following page 302) A four-legged robot called Steep Terrain Access Rover
(STAR) is under development at JPL. (Courtesy of Brett Kennedy, JPL.)
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