Georgia Tech rescue robot inspired by amoeba locomotion

Here is a bid idea based on a small concept — and we mean small. Scientists at Virginia Tech University have adopted the locomotive habits of amoebas to design a search and rescue robot capable of squeezing under a collapsed ceiling or through other debris-filled scenarios. Biologists among our readership may recall that amoebas use their entire outer skin to move, an effort known as the pseudopod principle. According to Technology Review, this “consists of a process of cytoplasmic streaming, in which the liquid endoplasm within the cell flows forward inside a semi-solid ectoplasmic tubular shell. As the liquid reaches the front, it turns into the gel-like ectoplasm, forming an extension to this tube and moving the organism forward. At the same time, the ectoplasm at the rear of the tube turns into the liquid endoplasm, taking up the rear.”

The rescue robot relies on similar principles by “contracting and expanding actuator rings along the length of the robot’s body. By contracting the rings at the rear of the robot and expanding them toward the front, they are able to generate movement.” The robot itself is toroidal in shape — “like an elongated cylindrical doughnut” — and is able to use the contracting and expanding motion, as well as its ability to use its entire surface area to create traction, to push itself through spaces smaller than its resting diameter. “It’s like a 3-D tank tread,” said professor Dennis Hong. Neverthless, much work remains to be done. Softbodied robots, experts say, present particular engineering challenges, including the question of where to place and how to protect sensors and power supplies. The principles here are good, but the engineering really needs to be worked out,” said professor Henrik Christensen of the Georgia Institute of Technology.