Taking a Leap in Bioinspired Robotics
December 16, 2016 | MITEstimated reading time: 7 minutes
In 2009, Kim accepted an assistant professorship in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, where he established his Biomimetic Robotics Lab and set a specific research goal: to design and build a four-legged, cheetah-inspired robot.
“We chose the cheetah because it was the fastest of all land animals, so we learned its features the best, but there are many animals with similarities [to cheetahs],” Kim says. “There are some subtle differences, but probably not ones that you can learn the design principles from.”
In fact, Kim quickly learned that in some cases, it may not be the best option to recreate certain animal behaviors in a robot.
“A good example in our case is the galloping gait,” Kim says. “It’s beautiful, and in a galloping horse, you hear a da-da-rump, da-da-rump. We were obsessed to recreate that. But it turns out galloping has very few advantages in the robotics world.”
Animals prefer specific gaits at a given speed due to a complex interaction of muscles, tendons, and bones. However, Kim found that the cheetah robot, powered with electric motors, exhibited very different kinetics from its animal counterpart. For example, with high-power motors, the robot was able to trot at a steady clip of 14 miles per hour — much faster than animals can trot in nature.
“We have to understand what is the governing principle that we need, and ask: Is that a constraint in biological systems, or can we realize it in an engineering domain?” Kim says. “There’s a complex process to find out useful principles overarching the differences between animals and machines. Sometimes obsessing over animal features and characteristics can hinder your progress in robotics.”
A “secret recipe”
In addition to building bots in the lab, Kim teaches several classes at MIT, including 2.007, which he has co-taught for the past five years.
“It’s still my favorite class, where students really get out of this homework-exam mode, and they have this opportunity to throw themselves into the mud and create their own projects,” Kim says. “Students today grew up in the maker movement and with 3-D printing and Legos, and they’ve been waiting for something like 2.007.”
Kim also teaches a class he created in 2013 called Bioinspired Robotics, in which 40 students team up in groups of four to design and build a robot inspired by biomechanics and animal motions. This past year, students showcased their designs in Lobby 7, including a throwing machine, a trajectory-optimizing kicking machine, and a kangaroo machine that hopped on a treadmill.
Outside of the lab and the classroom, Kim is studying another human motion: the tennis swing, which he has sought to perfect for the past 10 years.
“In a lot of human motion, there’s some secret recipe, because muscles have very special properties, and if you don’t know them well, you can perform really poorly and injure yourself,” Kim says. “It’s all based on muscle function, and I’m still figuring out things in that world, and also in the robotics world.”
Page 2 of 2Suggested Items
Sondrel Awarded New Video Processor ASIC Design and Supply Contract
05/09/2024 | SondrelSondrel, a leading provider of ultra-complex custom chips for leading global technology brands, is pleased to announce that it has won a major ASIC design and supply contract for a next generation, video processing chip.
Connect the Dots: Designing for Reality—The Pre-Manufacturing Process
05/08/2024 | Matt Stevenson -- Column: Connect the DotsI have been working with Nolan Johnson on a podcast series about designing PCBs for the reality of manufacturing. By sharing lessons learned over a long career in the PCB industry, we hope to shorten learning curves and help designers produce better boards with less hassle and rework. Episode 2 deals with the electronic pre-manufacturing process. Moving from CAD (computer-aided design) to CAM (computer-aided manufacturing) is a key step in PCB manufacturing. CAM turns digital designs into instructions that machines can use to actually build the PCB.
Indium Corporation to Showcase HIA Materials at ECTC
05/07/2024 | Indium CorporationAs an industry leader in innovative materials solutions for semiconductor packaging and assembly, Indium Corporation® will feature its advanced products designed to meet the evolving challenges of heterogeneous integration and assembly (HIA) and fine-pitch system-in-package (SiP) applications at the 74th Electronic Components and Technology Conference (ECTC), May 28‒31, in Denver, Colorado.
Siemens Delivers New Solido IP Validation Suite
05/07/2024 | SiemensSiemens Digital Industries Software introduced Solido™ IP Validation Suite software, a comprehensive, automated signoff solution for quality assurance across all design intellectual property (IP) types, including standard cells, memories and IP blocks.
Altair Acquires Research in Flight, Forging a New Path for Aerodynamic Analysis
05/07/2024 | AltairAltair a global leader in computational intelligence, announced it has acquired Research in Flight, maker of FlightStream®, which provides computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software with a large footprint in the aerospace and defense sector and a growing presence in marine, energy, turbomachinery, and automotive applications.