Researchers from Duke University claim that while the internet is quickly flooded with footage of futuristic robots running and darting around like the animals they were designed to resemble, there is one aspect of their movement programming that should not be ignored: rhythm.
The equations appear to be rather simple when examining legs, wings, and fins for moving robots or animals in the actual world. varied leverage ratios are produced by several sections of varied lengths of limbs, different drag coefficients and centers of mass are produced by diverse body forms and sizes, and different shapes and sizes of feet, wings, or fins are used to push against their surroundings.
The final design has additional degrees of flexibility because to all of these possibilities. But according to the researchers, up until this point, nobody really paid attention to the timing of how they are all operating together.
According to Adrian Bejan, the J.A. Jones Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Duke, “minimizing the amount of work being done by varying the speed over the mover is an idea that’s been around for a long time.” But even though it can enhance performance, changing the movement’s rhythm—the song of how the components move together over time—is a design element that has gone unnoticed.
Scientific Reports released a study online on August 28 that explored the logic and arithmetic behind this concept.
Bejan uses natural breaststroke swimmers, such frogs or people, to demonstrate his views in the study. Three time-intervals—a sluggish period of reaching forward, a quick period of pushing backward, and a still phase of coasting—define their swim gate. The durations of those intervals normally run long, rapid, long for best performance. However, in other circumstances—such as when outpacing or outwitting a predator, for instance—the ratios of those times substantially alter.
Different rhythms can be incorporated into the usual cruising movements of robots designed to resemble dogs, fish, or birds to increase the efficiency of their everyday activities. The selections made for all the other components of the system will be impacted by those ideal rhythms as well.
The research builds on earlier findings by Bejan, who showed that size and speed are correlated throughout the animal kingdom, whether on land, in the air, or underwater. That work’s underlying physics dealt with weight repeatedly sliding forward from an animal’s height. Bejan demonstrates in this study that his earlier research was insufficient and that the addition of rhythm can improve the mechanics of all moving things, including robots, animals, and machines.
To competitive swimmers and runners looking for an advantage, Bejan stated, “You can — and indeed you should — teach rhythms of movements.” “When trying to navigate the world, rhythm expands the range of knobs you can turn.
It serves as yet another illustration of how excellent design, whether created by humans or through natural evolution, is inherently an artistic endeavor.
