Robopike Pulls More Gs Than Space Shuttle Launch
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Wednesday, 3 of November , 2010 at 12:54 am
We’ve seen robotic fish that are fairly lifelike, but you probably wouldn’t call them fast. This one, though, is damn quick. Robopike (actually a robotic version of a chain pickerel) doesn’t actually do anything besides briefly accelerate in one direction, but it manages to do so at 4g, which is (for a very short amount of time) about equivalent to a top-fuel dragster.
Robopike (which hails from UMass Amherst) is a very, very simple design: inside its 50 centimeter long rubber body is a springy metal strip. The fish gets bent into a “C” shape by an external clamp, and when the clamp is released, the tail whips back and forth, propelling the fish forward at breakneck speed. The 4g acceleration is nothing compared to the 15gs displayed by startled real pikes, but it’s still 8 times more than any other robofish in existence.
The next step is to do away with all the external paraphernalia… Researchers are hoping to use motors in Robopike’s head to pull wires attached to its tail to enable the robot to bend itself. Once they understand the fundamental physics, the hope is that future robofish might use such bursts of speed to better deal with turbulence and to help them escape from robosharks.
VIA [ New Scientist ]
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Category: Biorobotics
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