Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a new theory of locomotion on several
Researchers have developed a concept that describeslocomotion based on the communication theory of the mathematician Claude Shannon. They proved that adding pairs of legs to a robot increases its ability to move reliably over complex surfaces, a concept they call spatial redundancy.
This redundancy ensures successfulmovement without the need for sensors to interpret the environment. If one foot stumbles, the many other feet keep the device moving no matter what. Essentially, the robot becomes a reliable system for transporting itself and even cargo from point A to point B through difficult or noisy terrain.
Movement of multi-legged robots. Video: Baxi Chong et al., Science
Guided by this concept, researcherscreated different robots, each time increasing the number of its legs by two: from six to 16. As the number of legs increased, the robot could move more nimbly through the terrain even without sensors, as the theory predicted.
While bipedal and quadrupedal robots inrely heavily on sensors to navigate difficult terrain, our multi-legged robot takes advantage of leg redundancy and can perform similar tasks with open-loop control.
Juntao He, study co-author
To operate most classic robotsa large number of sensors are required. But when performing complex tasks, such as rescue robots, exploration of Mars or microscopic systems, the perception of the robot is often limited. Under such conditions, autonomous robots with many legs will be more successful, the engineers say.
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Cover image: Georgia Tech