Here’s a taste of what went on over the 3 day event organized by the Convergent Science Network
Electro sensors inspired by fish who navigate their way through murky waters, robots that dance with the honeybees, and artificial muscles and blood vessels making their way into modern medicine. These are just a few of the research topics that were Continue reading
Biomimetic Robot from Vicky Vouloutsi on Vimeo.
As humans, we may take our sense of smell for granted but for many of the other members of the animal kingdom, either land-roaming or water-dwelling, a keen sense of smell serves as an invaluable tool! While cetaceans like dolphins have no sense of smell, some species of fish, such as the salmon, use theirs to guide them back to their native streams or to assist them in maintaining social hierarchy. Most of us are well aware that a dog’s nose could out Continue reading
The Jewel beetle may be able to detect forest fires up to 80km away… could they help humans do the same?
Judging by their glamorous iridescent colouring, you could never tell that a Jewel beetle’s preferred hang out is among heaps of ashes and soot. In fact, females within this family of beetles will search far and wide for the comforting branches of a smouldering Continue reading
Robots designed to move like cockroaches and geckos
It’s suspected that the earliest forms of cockroaches were present over 300 million years ago during the Carboniferous period while our modern roach’s history dates back to the more recent Cretaceous period, which ended about 65 million years ago. The end of that era demolished the dinosaurs but anyone living in an urban environment knows that the cockroaches managed to survive!
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These rats are back in action!
Grégoire Courtine and his team at The École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have been using a robotic harness and electro-chemical stimulation to get rats with damaged spinal cords up and running again.
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The SHOAL project develops robotic fish to help keep our waters clean!
SHOAL is a European research project that aims to produce a network of robotic fish to monitor pollution in aquatic environments.The project is being lead by BMT Group with support from several European universities and institutions which are focused on 5 specific aspects of SHOAL development:
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A new way to get meaningful info from minute creatures
Although not known for its beauty or its brains, the common fruit fly has won the devotion of scientists around the world thanks to its many traits that make it an excellent research subject.
Could blending living and artificial systems help make agriculture more eco-friendly?
What started out as an undergraduate summer project at the Distributed Robotics Lab (DRL), part of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab at MIT, has now turned into a long-term plan to
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Using machines to study social behaviour
How does culture emerge in human societies and those of other social animals? To tackle this question, a study funded by the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) lead by the University of Bristol and 5 other UK universities, is combining the expertise of researchers from diverse disciplines including : Computer science, social science, philosophy, theoretical biology, art history and cultural theory and robotics.
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This robot’s not snacking on shrimp or plankton to get its energy
Many of us consider jellyfish a nuisance when we’re walking along the beach or swimming in salty waves. While some species are highly hazardous, and others are nothing but harmless, for a bunch of (essentially) brainless animals, they sure do have some moves!
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