Robots are superior to animals in features related to running - yet humans run faster. A new review tried to find an explanation for this
By Tal Sokolov, the website of the Davidson Institute, the educational arm of the Weizmann Institute of Science
There are mechanical robots that surpass the animals in almost every measure necessary for running. Nevertheless, the animals still leave dust for the robots in running competitions - even for robots specially designed for this purpose. A broad overview of robots designed to run in a minute, how robots that surpass animals in a variety of essential metrics, nevertheless lose by a considerable margin in the running competition.
A successful runner must independently cover the required distance. It must be agile and flexible enough to navigate the surfaces around it, and maintain agility and flexibility even when there are changes in its condition or environmental conditions. Already about a decade ago, robots specially designed for long-distance running managed distances of More than 130 kilometers with the help of the battery they have, but they moved at a speed of only about three kilometers per hour and converted energy at a significantly lower efficiency than humans do. In addition, these performances were only measured in closed competition halls and on smooth surfaces, without any obstruction in the way.
Agility and flexibility have several measures, for example running speed, jumping height and turning and flipping speed. Robots built to run fast are getting closer for the average running speed of man, but remain far behind the speed records of the animal world. As the field conditions get more complicated, the speed gap between the robots and the animals increases. In addition, humans and animals jump, turn and react to changes more efficiently than robots.
The animal world is much more durable than the robots. Animals and humans can continue to move when injured and on a bumpy road, but robots are much more sensitive to flaws in their structure or disturbances along the way. The authors of the review conclude by stating that the animal world is built much better for running.
Cassie, a robot in the structure of the lower body of an ostrich, running on a smooth and free racing field. She broke the records of robots but she is far from the records of the animal world.
There are spare parts
If you break down the running process into its components, it seems that the engineering world has an advantage at almost every level. The optimal power supply for running stores a lot of energy and transfers it to the rest of the system in an efficient way. Admittedly, biological mechanisms can store more energy in relation to the weight of the fuel compared to the engineering mechanisms due to More efficient mechanisms of energy generation, but batteries transfer energy faster than the biological system does. Also, batteries and fuel tanks can be regenerated and filled faster than biological systems. The authors claim that the energy supply process of engineering systems can surpass the corresponding process in human systems.
To be suitable for running, a chassis needs to be light and durable at the same time. carbon fiber Those that are used in engineering are flexible and able to bear significant bends, to withstand great efforts before fractures appear in them, and to be a basis for a skeleton that will be more durable than a biological skeleton. These metrics are valid until significant damage, because unlike a living body, carbon fiber cannot recover from significant damage.
The propulsion mechanism of mechanical engines can surpass living muscle. Electric motors use in power torque In order to rotate the motor shaft and create movement. Torque is a force that is applied at a distance from the center of the bone and causes it to rotate, for example the force applied to the arm of the wrench to screw the screw in a rotary motion. Electric motors are able to produce a greater power torque in a short time, which is useful for sharp changes of direction during running. The engine also produces more power relative to its weight, compared to the power produced by a biological system.
Absorption and sensing systems are responsible for transferring information from the environment and the body to the control units that make decisions as needed. Mechanical reception and sensing systems have similar sensitivity and reception range to those of biological systems, however biological systems better integrate different inputs. The control system issues commands for actions that will enable movement. Electronic control systems can transmit more information in a shorter time than the nerve cells, and also shorten the delay time that passes between a command and an action.
born to run
In each of the subsystems that make up the runner, the capabilities of the engineering and mechanical systems approach the capabilities of the animal world and in some cases even exceed them. The authors emphasize that the considerable gap between the running robots and the animals is not found in any individual part. If we put together the best components for the ideal robot, it will still not achieve the animal, because the challenge of creating the complete robot is more complex than connecting the separate parts.
Each of the parts on its own has a similar ability to that of the animal world, but the combination between them includes weighing permutations and compromises, and in this the animal world excels more than the mechanical world. Mechanical mechanisms, each of which is excellent in its own function, come at the expense of each other when they are combined, and harm the independent capabilities of each one individually. Engineers succeed in building dedicated robots that surpass humans in specific tasks, but it turns out that running is a particularly complex task, which requires a combination of a variety of abilities and reaching a balance between them.
Behind the animal world are millions of years of evolution that will optimize and improve the processes of life. The animal world is designed to perform a variety of complex actions alongside running, and yet, even robots that are specially designed to run, and that have no other task than running, remain behind in this field - for now.
One response
The question arises why mechanical systems should imitate the movement of vertebrates. There are wheel-based propulsion systems designed for difficult terrain, which reach decent speeds on the plain.🤔