Mar 12, 2025 09:11 PM
(This post was last modified: Mar 12, 2025 09:17 PM by C C.)
'Odd' objects that adapt and move without a brain
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1076726
INTRO: Inspired by how brainless lifeforms such as starfish and slime moulds move around, physicists at the University of Amsterdam have constructed ‘odd’ objects that autonomously roll, crawl and wiggle over unpredictable terrain, including uphill and over obstacles placed in their way. This solves a key problem of robotic locomotion.
Locomotion, the ability of moving from one place to another, is an essential survival strategy for a large variety of living systems. Adapting to the unpredictable terrain they run into, cells, fungi and microorganisms autonomously move and change shape to explore their environments, while animals run, crawl, slither, roll and jump.
Despite advances in computing power and AI, human-made robots still struggle to imitate this movement, especially in new and unpredictable terrain. This prompts the question: what does it take to recreate the same adaptive locomotion capabilities that animals and other lifeforms have?
In answer to this question, physicists from the University of Amsterdam and the University of Chicago showcase a series of ‘odd’ objects – each a type of so-called ‘active metamaterial’ – that are remarkably good at moving across any terrain they encounter. Each object is made from the same motorised building blocks, which can sense forces and exert them on one another. Crucially, these building blocks interact with one another in an uneven or ‘odd’ way: building block A reacts to its neighbouring building block B differently than how B reacts to A.
A wormlike ‘odd chain’ of linked building blocks will wiggle through a bendy tunnel and over uneven ground. Loop a chain into an ‘odd wheel’ and it will bouncily roll itself forward, including uphill and over bumpy terrain. Similarly, an ‘odd ball’ made of the building blocks connected in a hexagonal grid will roll on flat terrain but changes to a crawling gait to move uphill... (MORE - details, no ads)
PAPER: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08646-3
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1076726
INTRO: Inspired by how brainless lifeforms such as starfish and slime moulds move around, physicists at the University of Amsterdam have constructed ‘odd’ objects that autonomously roll, crawl and wiggle over unpredictable terrain, including uphill and over obstacles placed in their way. This solves a key problem of robotic locomotion.
Locomotion, the ability of moving from one place to another, is an essential survival strategy for a large variety of living systems. Adapting to the unpredictable terrain they run into, cells, fungi and microorganisms autonomously move and change shape to explore their environments, while animals run, crawl, slither, roll and jump.
Despite advances in computing power and AI, human-made robots still struggle to imitate this movement, especially in new and unpredictable terrain. This prompts the question: what does it take to recreate the same adaptive locomotion capabilities that animals and other lifeforms have?
In answer to this question, physicists from the University of Amsterdam and the University of Chicago showcase a series of ‘odd’ objects – each a type of so-called ‘active metamaterial’ – that are remarkably good at moving across any terrain they encounter. Each object is made from the same motorised building blocks, which can sense forces and exert them on one another. Crucially, these building blocks interact with one another in an uneven or ‘odd’ way: building block A reacts to its neighbouring building block B differently than how B reacts to A.
A wormlike ‘odd chain’ of linked building blocks will wiggle through a bendy tunnel and over uneven ground. Loop a chain into an ‘odd wheel’ and it will bouncily roll itself forward, including uphill and over bumpy terrain. Similarly, an ‘odd ball’ made of the building blocks connected in a hexagonal grid will roll on flat terrain but changes to a crawling gait to move uphill... (MORE - details, no ads)
PAPER: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08646-3