Rewind back to 1950s, and every person at that point envisaged robots to be something with a more human persona and physique, perhaps larger than the average human body, at this point, though, we have a different story to tell in the field of robotics, with our recent research (on which we will be delving on later) it is interesting to see how robots are created bearing a stark resemblance to the vast and diverse animal kingdom.
In a video taken by BBC news on the recent development of robots, it was fascinating to see how an intelligent toy-car sized robot bore its way through the rough terrains while navigating routes, avoiding trees and other obstacles. This intelligent robot was built based on the movement and navigating abilities of the pint sized ants, of course not all the navigating abilities of the ant were emulated, in fact, one of the scientists involved in the making of this robot admitted that considering the pin sized head of an ant, she was in awe of the ant kingdom which have an excellent sense of navigation, something which cannot be easily imitated in a robotic form.
In another study, A group of European scientists has created what they term as the “Pollution-Hunting robot fish”, this fish as the term suggests, would be responsible for detecting pollutants found in the water, this 5 foot long robot can also be used for cleaning up oil spills, underwater security, diver monitoring or search and rescue at sea. On a more technical note, scientist Luke Speller who leads the project, explained that chemical sensors are fitted to the fish that permits real time, in-situ analysis rather than the current method of sample collection and dispatch to a shore based laboratory, these fish like the other real-life fishes can avoid obstacles, communicate with its kind, map where they are and know how to return to base when their eight-hour battery life is running low, their makers say.
Seems like with time, an apt place for these robots would probably be the jungle as they seem to give the animal kingdom quite a competition, however, while these robots are advanced in their functionality, scientists say that the complete emulation of animals is not very realistic. Watch this space for more news on that!