Why I make robots the size of a grain of rice
-
0:01 - 0:04My students and I
work on very tiny robots. -
0:04 - 0:06Now, you can think of these
as robotic versions -
0:06 - 0:10of something that you're all
very familiar with: an ant. -
0:10 - 0:13We all know that ants
and other insects at this size scale -
0:13 - 0:15can do some pretty incredible things.
-
0:15 - 0:18We've all seen a group of ants,
or some version of that, -
0:18 - 0:22carting off your potato chip
at a picnic, for example. -
0:22 - 0:26But what are the real challenges
of engineering these ants? -
0:26 - 0:30Well, first of all, how do we get
the capabilities of an ant -
0:30 - 0:32in a robot at the same size scale?
-
0:32 - 0:35Well, first we need to figure out
how to make them move -
0:35 - 0:36when they're so small.
-
0:36 - 0:38We need mechanisms like legs
and efficient motors -
0:38 - 0:40in order to support that locomotion,
-
0:40 - 0:43and we need the sensors,
power and control -
0:43 - 0:47in order to pull everything together
in a semi-intelligent ant robot. -
0:47 - 0:49And finally, to make
these things really functional, -
0:49 - 0:53we want a lot of them working together
in order to do bigger things. -
0:53 - 0:56So I'll start with mobility.
-
0:56 - 0:59Insects move around amazingly well.
-
0:59 - 1:01This video is from UC Berkeley.
-
1:01 - 1:03It shows a cockroach moving
over incredibly rough terrain -
1:03 - 1:05without tipping over,
-
1:05 - 1:09and it's able to do this because its legs
are a combination of rigid materials, -
1:09 - 1:12which is what we traditionally
use to make robots, -
1:12 - 1:13and soft materials.
-
1:14 - 1:18Jumping is another really interesting way
to get around when you're very small. -
1:18 - 1:22So these insects store energy in a spring
and release that really quickly -
1:22 - 1:26to get the high power they need
to jump out of water, for example. -
1:26 - 1:29So one of the big
contributions from my lab -
1:29 - 1:32has been to combine
rigid and soft materials -
1:32 - 1:34in very, very small mechanisms.
-
1:34 - 1:38So this jumping mechanism
is about four millimeters on a side, -
1:38 - 1:39so really tiny.
-
1:39 - 1:43The hard material here is silicon,
and the soft material is silicone rubber. -
1:43 - 1:46And the basic idea is that
we're going to compress this, -
1:46 - 1:49store energy in the springs,
and then release it to jump. -
1:49 - 1:52So there's no motors
on board this right now, no power. -
1:52 - 1:55This is actuated with a method
that we call in my lab -
1:55 - 1:57"graduate student with tweezers."
(Laughter) -
1:57 - 1:59So what you'll see in the next video
-
1:59 - 2:02is this guy doing
amazingly well for its jumps. -
2:02 - 2:06So this is Aaron, the graduate student
in question, with the tweezers, -
2:06 - 2:09and what you see is this
four-millimeter-sized mechanism -
2:09 - 2:11jumping almost 40 centimeters high.
-
2:11 - 2:13That's almost 100 times its own length.
-
2:13 - 2:15And it survives, bounces on the table,
-
2:15 - 2:19it's incredibly robust, and of course
survives quite well until we lose it -
2:19 - 2:21because it's very tiny.
-
2:21 - 2:24Ultimately, though, we want
to add motors to this too, -
2:24 - 2:27and we have students in the lab
working on millimeter-sized motors -
2:27 - 2:31to eventually integrate onto
small, autonomous robots. -
2:31 - 2:34But in order to look at mobility and
locomotion at this size scale to start, -
2:34 - 2:36we're cheating and using magnets.
-
2:36 - 2:39So this shows what would eventually
be part of a micro-robot leg, -
2:39 - 2:41and you can see the silicone rubber joints
-
2:41 - 2:44and there's an embedded magnet
that's being moved around -
2:44 - 2:46by an external magnetic field.
-
2:46 - 2:49So this leads to the robot
that I showed you earlier. -
2:50 - 2:53The really interesting thing
that this robot can help us figure out -
2:53 - 2:55is how insects move at this scale.
-
2:55 - 2:57We have a really good model
for how everything -
2:57 - 2:59from a cockroach up to an elephant moves.
-
2:59 - 3:02We all move in this
kind of bouncy way when we run. -
3:02 - 3:07But when I'm really small,
the forces between my feet and the ground -
3:07 - 3:09are going to affect my locomotion
a lot more than my mass, -
3:09 - 3:12which is what causes that bouncy motion.
-
3:12 - 3:13So this guy doesn't work quite yet,
-
3:13 - 3:16but we do have slightly larger versions
that do run around. -
3:16 - 3:20So this is about a centimeter cubed,
a centimeter on a side, so very tiny, -
3:20 - 3:23and we've gotten this to run
about 10 body lengths per second, -
3:23 - 3:25so 10 centimeters per second.
-
3:25 - 3:27It's pretty quick for a little, small guy,
-
3:27 - 3:29and that's really only limited
by our test setup. -
3:29 - 3:32But this gives you some idea
of how it works right now. -
3:32 - 3:36We can also make 3D-printed versions
of this that can climb over obstacles, -
3:36 - 3:39a lot like the cockroach
that you saw earlier. -
3:39 - 3:42But ultimately we want to add
everything onboard the robot. -
3:42 - 3:46We want sensing, power, control,
actuation all together, -
3:46 - 3:49and not everything
needs to be bio-inspired. -
3:49 - 3:52So this robot's about
the size of a Tic Tac. -
3:52 - 3:56And in this case, instead of magnets
or muscles to move this around, -
3:56 - 3:58we use rockets.
-
3:58 - 4:01So this is a micro-fabricated
energetic material, -
4:01 - 4:04and we can create tiny pixels of this,
-
4:04 - 4:07and we can put one of these pixels
on the belly of this robot, -
4:07 - 4:12and this robot, then, is going to jump
when it senses an increase in light. -
4:13 - 4:15So the next video is one of my favorites.
-
4:15 - 4:18So you have this 300-milligram robot
-
4:18 - 4:20jumping about eight
centimeters in the air. -
4:20 - 4:23It's only four by four
by seven millimeters in size. -
4:23 - 4:25And you'll see a big flash
at the beginning -
4:25 - 4:27when the energetic is set off,
-
4:27 - 4:29and the robot tumbling through the air.
-
4:29 - 4:30So there was that big flash,
-
4:30 - 4:33and you can see the robot
jumping up through the air. -
4:33 - 4:36So there's no tethers on this,
no wires connecting to this. -
4:36 - 4:39Everything is onboard,
and it jumped in response -
4:39 - 4:43to the student just flicking on
a desk lamp next to it. -
4:43 - 4:47So I think you can imagine
all the cool things that we could do -
4:47 - 4:52with robots that can run and crawl
and jump and roll at this size scale. -
4:52 - 4:55Imagine the rubble that you get after
a natural disaster like an earthquake. -
4:55 - 4:58Imagine these small robots
running through that rubble -
4:58 - 5:00to look for survivors.
-
5:00 - 5:03Or imagine a lot of small robots
running around a bridge -
5:03 - 5:05in order to inspect it
and make sure it's safe -
5:05 - 5:07so you don't get collapses like this,
-
5:07 - 5:11which happened outside of
Minneapolis in 2007. -
5:11 - 5:13Or just imagine what you could do
-
5:13 - 5:16if you had robots that could
swim through your blood. -
5:16 - 5:18Right? "Fantastic Voyage," Isaac Asimov.
-
5:18 - 5:22Or they could operate without having
to cut you open in the first place. -
5:22 - 5:25Or we could radically change
the way we build things -
5:25 - 5:28if we have our tiny robots
work the same way that termites do, -
5:28 - 5:31and they build these incredible
eight-meter-high mounds, -
5:31 - 5:35effectively well ventilated
apartment buildings for other termites -
5:35 - 5:37in Africa and Australia.
-
5:37 - 5:40So I think I've given you
some of the possibilities -
5:40 - 5:42of what we can do with these small robots.
-
5:42 - 5:47And we've made some advances so far,
but there's still a long way to go, -
5:47 - 5:49and hopefully some of you
can contribute to that destination. -
5:49 - 5:51Thanks very much.
-
5:51 - 5:53(Applause)
- Title:
- Why I make robots the size of a grain of rice
- Speaker:
- Sarah Bergbreiter
- Description:
-
By studying the movement and bodies of insects such as ants, Sarah Bergbreiter and her team build incredibly robust, super teeny, mechanical versions of creepy crawlies … and then they add rockets. See their jaw-dropping developments in micro-robotics, and hear about three ways we might use these little helpers in the future.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 06:06
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Abdulrahman Asiri
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