VGTU mokslininkai: išminuotojus ir gelbėtojus tuoj pakeis robotai

Abstract

Ar kada mąstėte, kaip juda šešiakojis vabzdys? Kaip jis dėlioja kojas ar įveikia paviršiaus nelygumus? Štai tokius klausimus kėlė Vilniaus Gedimino technikos universiteto mokslininkai. Bandydami tai suprasti, jie sukonstravo šešiakojį robotą, kurį kitaip galima vadinti heksapodu.

Have you ever thought how a six-legged insect is moving? How is it putting feet on uneven surface? Such questions were raised by VGTU scientists. Trying to understand it, they have built a robot with six legs, otherwise called hexapod. Walking robot, developed by Tomas Luneckas, Assistant of the Department of Automation of the Faculty of Electronics at VGTU together with his colleagues, can not only imitate the gait of the six-legged insect, but has also got more intelligence, and can assess a lot more information as compared to a driver robot. The latter divides all objects and surfaces into “passable”, “difficult to pass” or “fully impassable” for the robot, assessing only the interfering moving obstacles. Tom’s robot is able to assess the parameters of all touched surfaces, such as height and slopes of obstacles. Although the technology is still under development, the only walking robots’ researchers in Lithuania have already received several suggestions for adapting it to business. Tomas Luneckas told that businessmen have already suggested to employ robots in dangerous and difficult for people jobs, e.g. cleaning windows of skyscrapers. “The idea of hexapod robot has originated from my admiration and interest in insects. This is the reason why this type of robot is the most interesting for me,” – said T. Luneckas, who created this robot, trying to reproduce and imitate the insect‘s gait.