LOCUSTS provide valuable lessons when it comes to designing multi-legged
robots that can right themselves, say biologists at the University of
Cambridge.
Ahmed Aldo Faisal and Tom Matheson laid locusts on their backs, having first
put the insects in a temporary trance-like state by grasping them just behind
the head. Once the locusts recovered, they flipped upright in less than 600
microseconds. High-speed video revealed that they do it using just one of their
back legs (Journal of Experimental Zoology, vol 204, p 637).
No six-legged robot built so far can right itself if knocked upside-down,
according to Matheson.…
