Each ant makes its decisions autonomously
But in doing so is subordinate to the common objective and thereby plays its part towards solving the task in hand
The delicate ends are therefore a real challenge for the Festo engineers when it comes to transferring role models from nature into the world of
technology
For the first time with the Bionic ants the behavior of ants is imitated using complex control algorithms in
This respect it's not about a technical game for the Festo engineers
But about nothing less than the production technology of the future in the world of industry 4.0
machines also have to communicate with each other make autonomous decisions and
Cooperate in order to be able to react flexibly to different production scenarios
The biggest challenge for the Festo engineers was to integrate all the necessary functions of an artificial ant into the smallest of spaces
With as few components as possible
our engineers overcame this challenge
Enough space was created for the rechargeable battery and room for the eyes was made in the ants head
Such a functionally integrated design is made possible. Thanks to 3d printing
It would be difficult to make such an end using conventional Production Engineering
3 piezo bending transducers are used on each leg coated on both sides with piezo ceramics
They are able depending on the electrical controls to deflect by 1.5 millimeters in both directions
Clearly not enough to get an ant to walk
With the help of an elastic hinge the Festo technicians have managed to increase the ant step length to over 10 millimeters
The benefits of piezo elements are impressive
They work on a little energy or almost wear resistant and can be controlled quickly
But how does a small ant robot learn to walk?
The motion sequences of the ant are programmed and tested on a computer
If the ant walks smoothly on the computer it must demonstrate during initial tests on the real model
How well it can walk with its six legs?
Taking into account that this Bionic ant has only just learned to walk it gets around really quickly
Using a 3d camera system which was developed by scientists at Delft University
And adapted to the ant by Festo engineers the ant is able to see
Combined living off to electrical sensor the Bionic ant manages to find its way around in the space
How does the ant determine its position when it's on the pitch
Well for this we actually use three senses first of all we have a mouse sensor here under its abdomen
The mouse sensor is actually the same as in a computer mouse we can use this to track where the and walks across the pitch
We also have a magnetometer here in its head
The compass actually shows where North is and with this we can determine. What direction the ant is headed
Here at the front. We also have a camera system consisting of two cameras
Which gives us a stereo image and means we can detect the markers on the pitch and also measure the distance to them
We can therefore position ourselves with complete accuracy on the pitch
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This is Matt, and I'm Jay we're the developers for the next generation in micro flying robots called the dragonfly
For hundreds of years man has looked to the sky to fly like the birds
Our inspiration comes from one insect in particular the dragonfly with unmatched flight performance in the insect world
The tech tech dragonfly is a lightweight
robotic insect that collects and relays information while flying like a bird or hovering like an insect
Weighing in at less than one ounce
approximately the weight of a double-a battery the Dragonfly is the latest and ultra-micro avionics with stereoscopic vision
flight control systems and a camera-ready
Operating system this means you can do amazing aerial photography spy on people secure your house or use it as the next-gen gaming
Platform we've all seen helicopters
We've all seen quad rotors and airplanes, but really all of them are bulky low on battery and really just a one-trick pony
The tech tech dragonfly is really in a league of its own
It hovers like the best quad rotors and helicopters. It flies like the best of airplanes. It's really all these different Flyers combined
the dragonfly gets smaller and smaller with each iteration
While enhancing its performance something physically impossible for all the other flying systems
What you have is the world's first aerial photography tool?
that's efficient user friendly and you can take it in your pocket wherever you go I
Got my PhD in robotics and artificial intelligence from Georgia Tech
And I've been pursuing my passion for designing the next generation robots for the past 10 years
winning numerous competitions patents awards in robotic systems
I'm a graduate student in mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech the focus on mechatronics and automation
the research behind the dragonfly began with a million dollar grant from the US Air Force the
Dragonfly has been developed at Georgia Tech as a joint effort between PhDs
graduate students researchers and professors from multiple universities across the world
The dragonfly has five technology patents on its design ranging from mechanics and aerodynamics and flight controls
The Dragonfly is a game-changing technology and has won numerous awards
including the best design at Georgia Tech Research and innovation competition and first place at robotics innovation competition in Massachusetts
Unlike most other flying vehicles the Dragonfly is highly modular you can upgrade all the elements of the robotic insect through our website from
actuators to wings to electronics and many more
You can make it faster and more dynamic for gaming for higher endurance and more stable for aerial photography
We offer three different electronics packages ranging from basic flight control using gyroscopes and accelerometers
to more advanced packages which include GPS
high-definition video multiple cameras and wireless
communication the packages are the lightest in the world
Going from 3 up to 5 grams weighing less than a quarter and are smaller than a stick of gum
The system is quite user friendly and can even be flown with an iPad or smart phone
We offer all SDK to take your already awesome flying insect to the next level with 20 environmental sensors cameras and GPS
Capabilities that can be developed to track athletes
Outdoor events or integrated with an app as a fun way to record and retrace the day of skiing hiking or the real life
It has a home security option the dragonfly can hover monitor and report from inside or outside your home or property
Military can benefit from compact fliers given the each soldier as a look ahead
Having the Dragonfly as a pocketable tool for the police can ensure rapid response to stop violence in time
This could be the next generation and spy tools even James Bond would want one of these in his pocket
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so the general goal of our lab is to understand the locomotion aspect of animals and
Recently we are focusing on culture pack our four-legged animals
And we try to understand how how they efficiently run on the field and nature so that we can take that
expression and then using our engineering world
So for example we can create a prosthetic legs out of that technology, and we can even make a new transportation
Replacing cars so that you don't need a road in our world Shira is the fastest?
Four-legged animal in the world, and then we would like to make our robot run fast like a cheetah
When we started with our robot we started to look at cheetahs motion and applied its principles to our
mechanical version of a cheetah
Currently our robot cheetah can run up to 10 mile per hour and jump over
directory centimeter high obstacle
so previously most legged robots are powered by internal combustion engine and then hydraulic transmissions and
Those are very noisy and very inefficient
but people believe that internal combustion engine hydraulics are only way to make a lego robot runs and
Support itself people believe that vectoring motors are not powerful enough, so this is the first time we shows that
electrically powered roller can run and jump over all tight obstacles in order to build a dynamic global like cheetah
We had to develop
Everything on the robot including borers control system and control. I've already missed
because previous robot technology is focused on controlling static motion of the I
think this is really exciting future where Ruby Hyatt and
efficient and also powerful, and then we might be see the muscles of
Performance in the future. Please don't forget to Like and subscribe for new videos every day