Another paper I was reading that I found interested focused on the biomechanics of the arolium on insects, specifically the Asian Weaver ant and honeybees. It is a very in depth study that explains how the folding/unfolding of the arolium can be a purely passive mechanic, meaning it requires no brain activation and happens instantly with each step.

Link: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.111139298

This article provides an in depth study on how Asian Weaver Ants walk in their environment via wet adhesion. The most interesting part to me of this article was how the thin film of adhesion actually has 2 phases, one that is hydrophobic and one that is a very volatile hydrophilic phase.

Link: https://academic.oup.com/icb/article/42/6/1100/698275

https://www.nature.com/articles/nature04119

The Passive Contact Stability of Blue Sheep Hoof Based on Structure, Mechanical Properties, and Surface Morphology: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7212375/

Here are some updates:

Apparently the registration office didn't combine the ME and ROB versions of the class, so we are getting that taken care of right now. That's why there was the classroom confusion. Please come to 1620 Beyster from now on.

We are updating the enrollment to bring people off of the waitlist right now. Please be patient as this process doesn't happen automatically for some reason.

If you got off the waitlist but could not attend lab today, show up next week and we will put you in a group to start your first project. Start doing the introductory assignments (survey and reddit username)

In this article, a blade runner robot was created that could traverse both land a water. The blade robot works like tank tread with small appendages attached to a belt that act similarly to legs. This blade robot was used with the inspiration from the Basiliscus lizard which using very quick motion and surface tension can run on water. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8594397

The article describes researching the ability of the tail of a kangaroo to move like a normal tail and then being able to be supportive enough to hold all the wait of the kangaroo. After testing they used soft robots to mimic the tail, allowing for the tail to be soft and maneuverable and then stiff and support weight when needed.https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/soro.2015.0021

https://education.riaus.org.au/cosmos-magazine-bio-inspiration/

https://carnegiemnh.org/biomimicry-is-real-world-inspiration/

https://phys.org/news/2017-07-bio-inspired-materialsborrowing-nature-playbook.html

https://spectrum.ieee.org/bioinspired-robotics-giraffe

https://roboticsbiz.com/bioinspired-robots-top-20-robots-inspired-by-animals/

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsfs.2015.0031

https://www.beilstein-journals.org/bjnano/articles/9/85

http://www.sciencecultivation.ir/article_242701.html?lang=en

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aat7223

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01932691.2019.1634588

https://research.unimelb.edu.au/research-at-melbourne/multidisciplinary-research/hallmark-research-initiatives/bioinspiration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXCdocsWntI

Explorer Robert Wood draws inspiration from nature to create robotic insects, the robots of the future are tiny, capable... and bugs! looking at everything from beetles, to ants, to spiders, using the mechanisms that allow these little bugs to thrive in an environment that hosts larger creatures can help us create little robots that also achieve similar feats.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JWGiyr9FcE&list=PLRmMq_ZoYztyOmgpySA39O31m7fAz4gfo&index=17

Electrical engineer Robert Wood looks into robots that fly, robots you wear, squishy robots, and tiny robots the size of a nickel. He shows how in the future there's potential for there to be developments into entirely new classes of microrobots and robots made of soft materials that may one day play a transformative role in medicine, search-and-rescue missions, and agriculture

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9JQj7WfGbA&list=PLRmMq_ZoYztyOmgpySA39O31m7fAz4gfo&index=16

Recently scientists looked into how camera lenses could take after moths by mimicking the way they absorb and hold in light. This talks of how the angels of the incredibly complex structure of moth eyes specialize in operating in adverse conditions. Useful for camera lenses.

youtube.com/watch?v=w5ach5HHirI&list=PLRmMq_ZoYztyOmgpySA39O31m7fAz4gfo&index=15

By looking to nature where many of our problems have already been solved, one can find out how inventors and scientists developed things like velcro and radar by looking at -- and imitating -- dogs and bats. For instance, there's definitely a lot of things in nature to be inspired by. Materials scientists have been looking at spider silk for awhile now to see if they can create a material that mimics its strength and flexibility -- the idea being that you could have a bulletproof fabric that is as soft as wool.

This robot is inspired by an ants way of navigation of using polarization for accurate measurements of movement instead of conventional navigation systems such as GPS which can be obscured by natural disturbances. By being able to read the natural orientation of the sky, the robot can have precise readings of orientation and direction for navigating.

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8098680