LONDON: RoboticistsR have developed cockroach-inspired robots which can use their special body shape, especially their characteristic round shells, for maneuvering through obstacles. It is believed that this ability of the new robots can make them useful in military reconnaissance, rescue missions and on farms.
In the past, we have seen many research teams designing robots boasting the ability of avoiding obstacles. Those bots avoid obstacles by eluding stumbling blocks.
The robots begin by mapping out their surroundings using sensors and then use powerful computers for preparing a plan to move without colliding with the obstacles.
The study’s lead author Chen Li, a physicist from the Berkeley campus of University of California, said this method of avoiding obstacles has proven to be extremely successful when used in Google’s self-driving car. However, according to him, the method has certain limitations.
Li said that if the terrain becomes heavily cluttered and the gaps become smaller than or as big as the size of a robot, it might fail to plan a clear path through which it can move without hitting the obstacles.
The other limitation of this method of avoiding obstacles is that it requires sophisticated computers and sensors; often such units turn out to be too heavy or large for small bots to move around with.
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