来自Harvard Universityhave 3D printed a school of soft robotic fish that are capable of swimming in complex patterns without the aid of Wi-Fi or GPS.
受到独特的礁石外科医生的启发，该团队的“蓝机器人”具有四个用于精密导航的鳍片，以及一个由LED和摄像机组成的系统，使它们能够蜂拥而至。微小机器人的自给自足可以使其非常适合在人类无法获得的地区，非常适合生态监测应用。
“仅通过观察图片中的距离或近距离，他们就知道机器人在现实世界中必须走多远或关闭。这就是我们在这里玩的技巧，”该研究的主要作者Florian Berlinger告诉有线。
他补充说：“机器人通常部署在对人类无法接近或危险的地区。”“在这种情况下，拥有一个自给自足的机器人群体，这确实使您受益。”
Inspiration from under the sea
The animal world is brimming with creatures that group into self-organizing collectives, ranging from ant colonies to flocks of birds, but schools of fish are particularly adept at it. Such sea-dwelling legions enable their constituent fish to navigate based on the perception of their neighbors, and ultimately to forage, migrate and avoid any predators.
Recently, a number of researchers have attempted to map and mimic this natural collective intelligence, but their swarm bots are often remote controlled or GPS guided rather than self-organizing. Similarly, other projects have envisioned underwater robotics for monitoring sensitive areas like coral reefs, but again, these have proved difficult to coordinate.
Within aquatic conditions, traditional radio or GPS communications have proved ineffective, necessitating the development of a novel synchronization approach. Inspired by real schools of fish, which use only implicit visual cues to guide them, the Harvard scientists therefore set about developing a new navigation system that required no external control whatsoever.
教软机器人鱼
The Harvard team’s answer to this coordination conundrum was to 3D print seven autonomous miniature fish-inspired soft robots that they nicknamed the ‘Bluebots.’ Measuring just 235 cm3each, the tiny bots feature a suite of sensors and actuators that enable them to perceive and move within all three spatial dimensions.
为了为蓝机器提供3D视觉，科学家还为他们配备了两个195°广角镜和一对垂直堆叠的蓝光LED。从本质上讲，相机作为机器人的“眼睛”，并使用基于视觉的算法，能够快速识别邻居的位置并改变路线。
During testing, the Bluebots were programmed to periodically flash at a nominal time interval. This allowed them to converge into a swarm, in a movement that appeared from the outside, to be spontaneous. In later experiments, the bots were then set-up at different intervals, allowing them to switch repeatedly from dispersed to aggregated states.
作为最终测试，科学家利用隐式协调算法来实现类似于“铣削”的形成，这是真正的鱼类用来避免捕食者的涡流状运动。Bluebots最终能够实现该现象的最小化版本，并以顺时针或逆时针圆圈游泳。
Moving forwards, the scientists believe that advances in camera and actuation technologies will enable the development of new, more complex underwater robotics. For now though, the team’s coordination technique could be applied to guide unmanned vehicles, in areas such as collective search and rescue missions.
海洋启发的软机器人技术
Although printing swarm-capable robotic fish has previously proved problematic, a number of researchers have managed to fabricate singular sea-dwelling soft robots, capable of marine monitoring applications.
Scientists from佛罗里达大西洋大学（fau）和美国海军研究办公室, for instance, have3D printed five soft robotic jellyfish。Based on the moon jellyfish, the eight-legged bots have been designed with neutral buoyancy, to enable their application as a reef-monitoring tool.
同样，来自麻省理工学院have fabricated a软机器人鱼叫sofi, as a means of observing underwater wildlife. The silicone-based bot has already proved capable of capturing high-resolution images of marine life, while causing minimal disruption.
Elsewhere, a team based at the KoreanUlsan National Institute of Science and Technologyhave 3D printed awalking starfish-shaped soft robot。通过结合与sacrifici添加剂的方法al molding, the scientists were able to create a programmable device that can be actuated in controlled movements.
The researchers’ findings are detailed in their paper titled “Implicit coordination for 3D underwater collective behaviors in a fish-inspired robot swarm。” The research was co-authored by Florian Berlinger, Melvin Gauci and Radhika Nagpal.
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Featured image shows one of the Harvard team’s 3D printed ‘Bluebot’ fish-inspired soft robots. Photo via the Self-organizing Systems Research Group.
