Two months ago, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) unveiled its first generation of robotic snail to study the locomotion of snails and slugs. Another goal was to study microfluidics, or the behavior of liquids at a very small scale.
Now, MIT researchers announced RoboSnail II, a smaller model which they hope will "lead to new forms of locomotion for future machines."
RoboSnails I and II each consist of electronics aboard a rubber "foot" about six inches long by one inch wide. The robots glide over a thin film of "mucus," or silicon oil. The two were created to test mathematical simulations describing forms of snail locomotion.
Snails "can maneuver over a range of complex terrains -- even across ceilings -- and they’re very mechanically simple," said Assistant Professor Anette "Peko" Hosoi of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, principal investigator for the work. They also don’t have exposed joints, so a machine based on their form and covered with rubber resistant to corrosion can navigate in chemically harsh environments.
Here is a photograph of RoboSnails I (right) and II (Credit: Donna Coveney). [RoboSnail I has since been rebuilt to be the same size as the smaller RoboSnail II. ]
RoboSnail II will be able to study the three different modes of locomotion of snails. Three modes?
For example, some travel over the mucus by undulating their bodies in tiny waves moving from the front of the animal to the back. Snails can also move forward by undulating in the reverse direction, from back to front.
The snail’s third form of locomotion? It actually gallops. Like an inchworm, the animal sticks the front of its foot to a surface (thanks to suction and friction from the mucus), then draws the rest of its body up behind it. (The engineers have no immediate plans to build a galloping robot.)
And besides snails, what can we expect from this project?
Although the research has only been underway since last November, the engineers are excited about some initial results. For example, said Hosoi, it was previously thought that movement (like that of a snail) over a fluid requires a non-Newtonian fluid, or one that can behave like a solid or liquid. "We’ve shown that you don’t need that at all. It’ll work with any sort of fluid, so long as the fluid is viscous enough."
Sources: MIT News Office, via ScienceDaily, September 5, 2003
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