Rat moustaches for robots
2006/12/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria
In the world of sensors that are placed on robots has taken a step forward. Two mechanical engineers from the University of Evanston of Illinois wanted to imitate the mechanism of rat whiskers in a robot.
Rats do not have a very demanding vision and moustaches are very useful to make a mental image of the environment in which they live. When the moustaches touch an object, they move and the movement is transmitted to the base of the moustaches. This movement of the base is the information used by the rat and from there they have developed the mathematical model of movement and designed a robot.
The robot is basically a spinning bar. The bar has been added four whiskers in a row and a motion sensor at the base of each mustache. Once the sensor data is collected, the mathematical model will represent what is touched by the moustaches.
The robot can have different uses. Among other things, placing them at the bottom of the exploration vehicles, I could know the surface that underlies, which would greatly facilitate the journey.
