Industrial robot developers can learn much from animals, according to EU Automation's Jonathan Wilkins.
Wilkins is marketing director at EU Automation which supplies obsolete, reconditioned, or new automation parts.
Zoomorphism is the literary term used to describe the attribution of animal characteristics to inanimate objects, and Wilkins says it can teach us to make better industrial robots.
Companies such as German automation giant Festo and US robotics expert Boston Dynamics have already developed examples of birds, sea creatures and mammals in robot form, Wilkins says.
By embracing what the natural world offers, engineers can go beyond the ordinary and create robots that elicit a truly emotional response, he says.
Three areas that are particularly interesting are grippers, limbs and artificial intelligence software, according to Wilkins.
Grippers
“One of the biggest barriers to the adoption of industrial robots in picking and packing lines has been the use of adequate grippers that can pick objects of varying size, shape and weight quickly and accurately without damaging or deforming the product,” Wilkins says.
“This is especially important in the food and beverage sector, such as supermarket fulfilment centres, where soft hand-like grippers with fingers covered in tiny suckers are used to pick and pack items of food such as heads of lettuce without damaging the product.”
Limbs
“Although there is a tendency to create robots after our own image, why create robots with human limitations? Modelling the limb movements of robots after those of arthropods, insects and four-legged mammals, such as dogs and cheetahs, offers engineers the ability to create robots that can traverse rough terrain quickly and efficiently, recovering more easily from falls and setbacks,” he says.
Software and AI
Wilkins says that creating hardware capable of mimicking animal movements is only half the battle. Creating the software and algorithms that can mimic the subtle nuances of human and animal interaction is another.
“Imagine a robot capable of seeing microscopic defects in an integrated circuit board, or a collaborative robot (CoBot) that can stop an accident when working alongside a human being by catching a falling object or swerving to avoid a collision without having to bring the factory to a halt.”
