Robotics - General News

This could go in the 'What new materials are there?' thread too. It's a neural network computer but its processing is with kinetic force not electrons.

https://www.newscientist.com/articl...-could-enable-smart-aircraft-wings-that-morph

Instead of processing digital data, the mechanical neural network processes forces applied to it, twisting and morphing its shape depending on the stiffness of its beams. For instance, an even force applied across one side of the network can be directed by many beams to immediately create force in a wave shape at the opposite end, while an even force applied upwards could produce the inverse wave.

[...]

“You could do something neat like turbulence interference, where the wing gets hit by something and it locally deforms and morphs to try and keep the energy spread out in a way that the cabin feels nice and smooth,” he says. “Right now, wings are designed to do big motions, flex, distribute that across the wing, and that results in jerkiness in the cabin.”

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.abq7278
 
Grey Havoc said:
https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/15/boston_dynamics_ghost_robotics/
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That may be tricky. Unless Boston Dynamics can point to specific software, Ghost will be able to argue that an optimally efficient gait is determined by physics, meaning that 'convergent evolution' is inevitable.

Boston claims that Vision 60 and another of Ghost Robotics' robots, known as Spirit 40, infringe on its patents, including one related to how its robot dogs avoid obstacles while climbing stairs (allegedly infringing patent 11,073,842), and the methodology behind its walking gait and how it avoids being knocked off balance while moving (alleged to infringe US patent 9,387,588).

The key word would be 'methodology.'
 
This is not new. Although it is beautiful to watch.

The clamp mechanism needs to be sized for damping the shock and, in their case, with a flapping wings drones, have it's own set of actuators and sensors to compensate for the lack of flight stability. Hence, it's a payload by itself that will compete with the UAV function.
 
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TomcatViP said:
Hence, it's a payload by itself that will compete with the UAV function.
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Good point! As an exercise in biomimetics, it's modelled on a bird, which has legs that are deadweight in flight. The pterosaurs combined the functions of ground locomotion and flight in the same limbs. The azhdarchids were particularly good at this: their powerful wing muscles were used for launch as well as flapping and, judging by grooves in their bones, had elastic tendons acting like bungee cords to recover energy during liftoff.

https://www.academia.edu/1800608/Ho..._Visualizing_Quadrupedal_Launch_in_Pterosaurs
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRk_OV2cDkk


https://pterosaur.net/terrestrial_locomotion.php
In nature, diverse functions are often combined in the same structures and organs. Experimental engineering - understandably - tries out just one at a time.

And if I'm going to suggest that the idea of a robot pterosaur is damn cool, I've definitely got to mention Paul McCready:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_TwlNDvdwE
 
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