You fear that your adorable cat will be replaced by a robot cat like in Mars ExpressMars Express ? Do you see with horror that the army is taking an ever-increasing interest in factory-made soldier dogs? Rest assured, the replacement of our animal friends is not happening right away. At issue: the persistent gap between the movement capabilities of animals and robots.
In an article published in Science Roboticsresearchers from the University of Colorado Boulder (United States) looked into the question and showed that, despite recent advances in robotics and artificial intelligence, robots are unable to surpass the capabilities of cheetahscheetahshumans, or even cockroaches in natural environments.
A more efficient biological system
They have, in fact, not yet reached the level of efficiency and complexity of biological systems, which manage to harmoniously combine different capacities necessary for movementmovement : power (which confersenergyenergy necessary for movement), robustness, actuation (the mechanisms of movement), perception (the ability to detect and understand one’s environment) and control (the regulation of actions in response to perceptions).
“In 200 years of intensive engineering, we have been able to send spacecraft to the MoonMoon and on Mars, and much more, notes Kaushik Jayaram, roboticist and co-author of the study in a press release. It is disconcerting to note that we do not yet have robots that are significantly more efficient than biological systems in mattermatter locomotion in natural environments. »
In fact, engineers face compromises inherent to the design: “if we try to optimize something, like the speedspeed advancement, we risk losing something else, like the ability to turn”deplores the researcher.
Towards an integrated design of our future robots?
To overcome these challenges, scientists suggest drawing inspiration from the biological model by creating “ subunitssubunits functional”, where the different elements would be thought of in a synergistic manner, as in animal cells. This would involve integrating key components (energy sources, actuators, control systems) into unique parts of the robot.
The goal: to imitate the biological model where organisms integrate different functions into specific anatomical structures. For example, instead of separating the battery, motors and control circuits into separate components, they could be designed to work together in a harmonious and coordinated manner.
A major challenge for researchers, and which suggests a long time before a quadruped robot can successfully confront a horse on an obstacle course.
