Robot Lobstrocities :: Technology Machines Papers

Robot Lobstrocities Check this out, Joseph Ayers, a biology prof at Northeastern University says as he turns on his laptop.The soundtrack from the 1975 film, Jaws plays in the background. On the screen is a grainy image of a moving pecker lumbering towards a huge pile of bricks, easily maneuvering itself over them. The harmony reaches its climactic conclusion and a lethal claw dominates the screen. Fortunately its not a monster its just a lobster. For Ayers, lobsters atomic number 18 fascinating creatures that has inhabited his life for most of his career. For more than a ten his team has worked on building a fully autonomous robotic lobster with the corresponding behavioral patterns of the real thing. Funded largely by the US Navy, the hope is that it pass on one day be used for underwater mine sensing as a less expensive and more efficient ashes to current methods.Hours were spent analyzing lobster behavior and its legs, claws, abdomen and tail movements. These observations were then born-again into mathematical components, correlating the movements with the nerve signals that actuated them. In essence it makes a computer program act as the lobsters brain. A big grade from the field of artificial intelligence, the project is all about reverse engineering the biological functions nature has taken thousands of years to evolve and develop. Were in all likelihood one of the few laboratories in the world to get artificial muscles to work. To in truth control a freely behaving robot. The other thing thats distinguishable about our robot is that it really is controlled by the rules the nervous clay working by, instead of the list of instructions to control the behavior, unlike AI found robots, said Ayers.Starting out as a young life scientist from California, Ayers is now one of forefront re searchers of biomimetics, which takes ideas from nature and implements them into new technology. His project originate in from his graduate days when he first s tudied the behavior of the lobster. both sides of Ayers office are crammed with books on marine biology. It is a classifiable college professors office, except for the lobster claw mobile hanging from the ceiling. On the wall, a childs drawing of lobster. A Superman derisory book featuring, the Lobster Man. Its obvious that Ayers has an affinity with these crustaceans. He admires their nervous system and adaptability to the sea. Their complex movements and ability to move on every surface of the sea floor.