A robot that can imitate the punch of a mantis shrimp that is delivered at a speed exceeding the bullet is born
Mantis shrimp, known as sushi, is a type of arthropod that lives on the seabed. I am. By modeling the punching mechanism of such a mantis shrimp, a robot that reproduces the powerful attack was developed.
A physical model of mantis shrimp for exploring the dynamics of ultrafast systems | PNAS
Robot mimics the powerful punch of the mantis shrimp
https://www.seas.harvard.edu/news/2021/08/robot-mimics-powerful-punch-mantis-shrimp
The robot was developed by a research team led by Professor Robert Wood of Harvard University School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). You can see what kind of robot is a robot that can imitate mantis shrimp by watching the following movie.
Robot mimics the powerful punch of the mantis shrimp --YouTube
According to the research team, some creatures, such as mantis shrimp punches, frog legs, and chameleon tongues, store elastic energy and release it quickly to achieve unobtrusive high-speed movement.
The mantis shrimp punch is delivered with a punch-specific foot called 'catching leg'. The exoskeleton of this catching leg becomes like a spring, and elastic energy is accumulated by hooking the front section of the catching leg with the inner skeleton of the back section.
Then, when the endoskeleton that is the fastener is removed, the anterior segment of the catching leg is flipped forward in about 2 milliseconds.
In other words, just like shooting a sharp arrow by squeezing the bow and arrow to the limit and then shooting it, the fastener of the endoskeleton is removed and elastic energy is released at once, and a tremendous punch is delivered. However, this mechanism is just a hypothesis and has never been proved. Emma Steinhart, a member of the research team and the lead author of the treatise, said, 'The mantis shrimp does not have special muscles compared to other crustaceans. It means that some mechanical mechanism is needed for the mantis shrimp to punch out with tremendous acceleration. '
So, to demonstrate the mechanism of mantis shrimp punching, the research team created a robot that is close to the size of an actual mantis shrimp and weighs only 1.5 grams. This robot has a structure that reproduces the catching leg of a mantis shrimp, and the only substitute for the muscle is a thin thread that pulls the front section of the catching leg. If this robot can also deliver powerful punches, it means that the mantis shrimp uses the skeletal structure rather than muscle strength to punch.
When the research team actually conducted an experiment with this robot, the robot succeeded in punching at a speed of 26 meters per second. Although the punch of this robot is not as fast as the punch speed of a real mantis shrimp, according to the research team, 'the acceleration power is equivalent to the speed of a car reaching 93 km / h in 4 milliseconds'. Research has also shown that there are four stages in the mechanism by which the mantis shrimp punches.
'This study shows how interdisciplinary collaborative research can bring discoveries in many areas. Build physical models and develop mathematical models,' said co-author of the treatise, Professor Sheila Patik of the Department of Biology at Duke University. In the process of doing so, by re-understanding the mechanism of Shako's punching, we were able to discover a mechanism that controls a large amount of energy so that organisms can perform ultra-high-speed movements many times. '
In addition, the research team said that not only the punch of the mantis shrimp, but also the high-speed jump of the frog, the movement of the long tongue of the chameleon, the mechanism of the ant's chin beating, etc. can be imitated and studied by the approach reproduced by the robot. I did.
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