Anisotropic compliance of robot legs improves recovery from swing-phase collisions
Uneven terrain in natural environments challenges legged locomotion by inducing instability and
causing limb collisions. During the swing phase, the limb releases from the ground and arcs forward
to target a secure next foothold. In natural environments leg –obstacle collisions may occur during
the swing phase which can result in instability, and may require contact sensing and trajectory
re-planning if a collision occurs. However, collision detection and response often requires
computationally- and temporally-expensive control strategies. Inspired by low stiffness limbs that
can pass past obstacles in small insect...
Source: Bioinspiration and Biomimetics - August 11, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Henry Chang, Justin Chang, Glenna Clifton and Nick Gravish Source Type: research
A bionic soft tongue driven by shape memory alloy and pneumatics
Soft grippers have exhibited considerable advantages owing to their flexible deformation, compliant
operation, and safe interaction with objects. The ability to grip solid and liquid objects can
greatly expand the application range of the soft grippers. Dogs stick out their tongues and then
curl them backward to form a ladle shape for eating food and drinking water. The large extension
ratio and the ladling motion of the tongues endow dogs with flexible operations for both solids and
liquids. In this work, inspired by both the extending and ladling motions of dog tongues, a bionic
soft tongue with the capability of h...
Source: Bioinspiration and Biomimetics - August 10, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Ning Gong, Hu Jin, Shuaishuai Sun, Shixin Mao, Weihua Li and Shiwu Zhang Source Type: research
A bio-inspired localization-free stochastic coverage algorithm with verified reachability
Dependence on constant availability to an external localization service is often unreliable and
infeasible in mobile robots. In this paper, we take inspiration from a continuous fish motion model,
the persistent turning Walker (PTW), to devise a strategy which is able to achieve 2D and 3D
coverage in an unknown environment in the absence of a localization service, such as a global
positioning system (GPS). This is achieved by converting the continuous-time dynamical system into a
discrete-time Markov chain which is then shown to exhibit strongly connected properties that are
verifiable through numerical methods. The ...
Source: Bioinspiration and Biomimetics - August 7, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Ayesha Khan, Said Al-Abri, Vivek Mishra and Fumin Zhang Source Type: research
Biological transformation —battery protection inspired by wound healing
This study demonstrates the improvement of the safety of an electric vehicle battery system inspired
by wound healing and pain reflex response, which are among the most important protective mechanisms
of the human body system. In particular, the individual mechanisms are systematically characterized,
their underlying principles identified and transferred to a simulated battery system using a novel
attr... (Source: Bioinspiration and Biomimetics)
Source: Bioinspiration and Biomimetics - August 7, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Simon Bessler, Katharina Hess, Henning Weigt and Malte von Ramin Source Type: research
Looking down: a model for visual route following in flying insects
Insect visual navigation is often assumed to depend on panoramic views of the horizon, and how these
change as the animal moves. However, it is known that honey bees can visually navigate in flat, open
meadows where visual information at the horizon is minimal, or would remain relatively constant
across a wide range of positions. In this paper we hypothesise that these animals can navigate using
view memories of the ground. We find that in natural scenes, low resolution views from an aerial
perspective of ostensibly self-similar terrain (e.g. within a field of grass) provide surprisingly
robust descriptors of precise...
Source: Bioinspiration and Biomimetics - August 7, 2021 Category: Science Authors: J Stankiewicz and B Webb Source Type: research
Very low Reynolds number causes a monotonic force enhancement trend for a three-dimensional hovering
wing in ground effect
This research reports the numerical results of the ground effect trend for a three-dimensional
flapping insect wing at a very low Reynolds number (Re = 10). It demonstrates that the ground effect
trend at this Re has a ‘single force regime,’ i.e. the forces only enhance as the ground distance
decreases. This phenomenon is unlike the widely expected non-monotonic trend publicized in previous
studies for higher Reynolds numbers, that shows ‘three force regimes,’ i.e. the forces reduce,
recover, and also enhance as the ground distance decreases. The force trend in the ground effect
correlates to a similar trend ...
Source: Bioinspiration and Biomimetics - August 3, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Xueguang Meng, Anas Ghaffar, Yang Zhang and Chengjian Deng Source Type: research
A mobile magnetic pad with fast light-switchable adhesion capabilities
Octopus suckers that possess the ability to actively control adhesion through muscle actuation have
inspired artificial adhesives for safe manipulation of thin and delicate objects. However, the
design of adhesives with fast adhesion switching speed to transport cargoes in confined spaces
remains an open challenge. Here, we present an untethered magnetic adhesive pad combining the
functionality of fast adhesion switching and remotely controlled locomotion. The adhesive pad can be
activated from low-adhesion state to high-adhesion state by near infrared laser within 30 s,
allowing to fulfill a high-throughput task o...
Source: Bioinspiration and Biomimetics - August 3, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Lin Su, Dong Dong Jin, Cheng Feng Pan, Neng Xia, Kai Fung Chan, Veronica Iacovacci, Tiantian Xu, Xuemin Du and Li Zhang Source Type: research
Light absorption enhancement and radiation hardening for triple junction solar cell through
bioinspired nanostructures
Multi-junction solar cells constitute the main source of power for space applications. However,
exposure of solar cells to the space radiation environment significantly degrades their performance
across the mission lifetime. Here, we seek to improve the radiation hardness of the triple junction
solar cell, GaInP/Ga(In)As/Ge, by decreasing the thickness of the more sensitive middle junction.
Thin junctions facilitate the collection of minority carriers and show slower degradation due to
defects. However, thinning the junction decreases the absorption, and consequently, the expected
photocurrent. To compensate for this...
Source: Bioinspiration and Biomimetics - July 28, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Thomas Vasileiou, Jos é M Llorens, Jerónimo Buencuerpo, José M Ripalda, Dario Izzo and Leopold Summerer Source Type: research
Design and experimental evaluation of the novel undulatory propulsors for biomimetic underwater
robots
Inspired by wide and elongated fins of aquatic species, robotic undulatory propulsors are developed
to achieve advanced maneuverability. Through biological observation, undulatory fins are typically
comprised of more than 100 fin rays to propagate continuous and diverse propulsive waves for agile
locomotion. Due to practical engineering restrictions, most robotic undulatory propulsors are
characterized by limit number of long fin rays which intersect flexible fin surfaces as backbones
and partition them into multiple membrane-like segments. As spatially discrete surfaces affect waves
traveling and thrust efficiency, ...
Source: Bioinspiration and Biomimetics - July 25, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Yaxin Li, Lingguo Chen, Yu Wang and Cheng Ren Source Type: research
Pausing after clap reduces power required to fling wings apart at low Reynolds number
The smallest flying insects, such as thrips (body length (Source: Bioinspiration and Biomimetics)
Source: Bioinspiration and Biomimetics - July 25, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Vishwa T Kasoju and Arvind Santhanakrishnan Source Type: research
Double-rowed teeth: design specialization of the H. venator ants for enhanced tribological stability
The ant H. venator can engage in various labors using a pair of elongated mandibles with the ability
to rotate about two orthogonal axes. This biaxial rotation enables the ant to gently handle their
small, fragile eggs with enhanced contact area and smaller work space. However, how this biaxial
rotation influences the ant ’s predation ability and how the ant responds to this influence remain
elusive. We quantitatively investigate the tribological performance of the ant ’s mandibles during
interactions with prey by taking morphology and kinematics into consideration. We find that each ant
mandible features unique,...
Source: Bioinspiration and Biomimetics - July 25, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Wei Zhang, Zhigang Wu, Zixin Wang, Zhe Wang, Chuchu Li, Hamed Rajabi and Jianing Wu Source Type: research
Modeling and analysis of a passively adaptive soft gripper with the bio-inspired compliant mechanism
Similar to the end effectors for traditional rigid robots, those for soft robots are essential as
the interacting media between the robots and their environments. Inspired by the forelegs of
climbing animals, a passively adaptive soft gripper (ASG), with six claws and a compliant mechanism,
is developed for grasping objects and attaching to rough surfaces. The design method, grasp
adaptability, form closure, and force equilibrium of the ASG are presented and analyzed in this
paper. Due to the compliance at each claw root, the ASG possesses a high passive adaption to various
objects. With sharp hooks, a form closure m...
Source: Bioinspiration and Biomimetics - July 20, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Manjia Su, Yisheng Guan, Dongyu Huang and Haifei Zhu Source Type: research
Enhanced design considerations on the buckling and dynamics of Gannet-inspired systems during water
entry
To provide a more complete analysis of Gannet birds and Gannet-inspired drones during diving, this
work considers an improved beam model to describe the static and dynamic characteristics of Gannet
and Gannet-like drones at impact. The beam model consists of two different geometric and material
property beams under continuity conditions to better understand the geometrical and material
parameters ’ influence on the structural statics and dynamics of these kinds of systems. Using
Hamilton ’s principle, the equations of motion, continuity, and boundary conditions considering
Euler –Bernoulli and Timoshenko theori...
Source: Bioinspiration and Biomimetics - January 1, 2021 Category: Science Authors: S Zimmerman and A Abdelkefi Source Type: research
Abnormal stiffness behaviour in artificial cactus-inspired reinforcement materials
Cactus fibres have previously shown unusual mechanical properties in terms of bending and axial
stiffness due to their hierarchical structural morphology. Bioinspiration from those cactus fibres
could potentially generate architected materials with exciting properties. To that end we have built
bioinspired artificial analogues of cactus fibres to evaluate their mechanical properties. We have
generated 3D printed specimens from rendered models of the cactus structure using two different
printing techniques to assess the reproducibility of the structural topology. Bioinspired additive
manufactured materials with unusua...
Source: Bioinspiration and Biomimetics - January 1, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Ioannis Zampetakis, Yousef Dobah, Dong Liu, Ben Woods, Abderrezak Bezazi, Adam Perriman and Fabrizio Scarpa Source Type: research
Protrusion mechanism study in sipunculid worms as model for developing bio-inspired linear actuators
In this study, we employed a marker-less
optical tracking strategy to quantitatively study introvert protrusion (i.e. kinematics, elongation
percentage and forces exerted) in different navigation media. When P . stephensoni specimens were
free in sea water (outside from the burrow), the worms reached lengths up to th... (Source: Bioinspiration and Biomimetics)
Source: Bioinspiration and Biomimetics - December 22, 2020 Category: Science Authors: Silvia Filogna, Veronica Iacovacci, Fabrizio Vecchi, Luigi Musco and Arianna Menciassi Source Type: research
