New ideas and aspirations in robotics

2001/02/07 Elhuyar Zientzia

• Robotika

Robots have long been used in businesses, in space and without going so far in the kitchen itself. In addition to lightening many lives, they carry out works that the human being cannot perform and, in that sense, they are certainly a great technological advance. However, according to the latest news, at the moment it cannot be said that robotics has reached its peak. To meet new needs, researchers have launched a lot of new intentions focusing on insects.

The University of Todai is working on designing robots that look like bees and are capable of detecting chemical and radioactive contamination. It is about giving these flying robots a great autonomy that allows them, for example, to act as vigilantes of nuclear power plants. On the other hand, following the same idea, robots are being manufactured in the United States that detect movements of people, banks, government buildings, museums, etc. surveillance. Finally, inspired by insects, Berkeley University researcher Michael Dickinson is designing robots that satisfy the passion for exploring space. Its goal, although it still seems science-fiction, is to create robots that, imitating the behavior of social insects, will go out to explore space in groups. To do this you must ensure communication between robots.

On the other hand, in order to meet the needs of medical, telecommunication and high precision fields that are not insects, microrobots are being designed.

Some of the microrobot models have been made at the Swedish University of Linköpings. They are 0.6 mm long by 0.3 mm wide and work with a precision of a tenth of a millimeter! They perform the movements with total freedom, with elbow, wrist, hand and between two and four fingers. They also have the ability to move in blood and urine. In view of this, researchers say that they will have great medical use and that, among other things, they will be able to extract living cells from the blood without damaging them to investigate in laboratories.

For his part, researcher Montegno of Cornell University in New York is designing a microhelicopter that will be more than just a robot with joints. It has a nickel body and is able to travel through the arteries of man using a chemical as fuel. This helicopter would move the drugs into the cell. Following the same principle, the University of Utah is thinking of releasing the arteries and making a microhelicopter that cures tumors.

However, in robotics not everything is serious, and although a couple of months ago they invented aerobic robots, they have now made footballers with six legs. Sure, it's not all about working and occasionally you'll have to do some sport! The creators have said that it is still difficult to make athletes of two-legged robots because of balance problems, so our athletes can be calm, they will not replace them so easily!