Robotics engineers have been working for many decades and investing millions of research dollars in an effort to create a robot that can walk or run as effectively as an animal. Despite these efforts, animals are still capable of feats that current robots cannot replicate.
“A wildebeest can migrate for thousands of kilometers over rough terrain, a mountain goat can climb up a literal cliff, finding footholds that don’t even seem to be there, and cockroaches can lose a leg and not slow down,” explains Dr. Max Donelan, a Professor at Simon Fraser University. “We have yet to develop robots with the endurance, agility, and robustness of these animals.”
To understand why robots lag behind animals, a team of scientists and engineers conducted a detailed study comparing running robots to animals. The study, published in Science Robotics, found that while engineered components often outperform biological ones, animals excel in integrating and controlling these components.
The team, including researchers from various universities, analyzed different subsystems that make up a running robot and compared them to biological equivalents. Despite the superior performance of engineered parts, animals still outperform robots in overall movement and agility.
Despite the challenges, the researchers are optimistic about the progress in robotics. They believe that with the ability to learn from past robots and quickly implement improvements, engineering can progress faster than evolution. However, they acknowledge that evolution has given animals a significant head start.
Effective running robots have a wide range of potential applications, from solving delivery challenges to navigating hazardous environments. The researchers hope that by understanding how to better integrate and control existing hardware, future robot technology can match the efficiency and agility of biological counterparts.
