CAREER: Dynamics of Extreme Locomotion in Biological and Bioinspired Systems: The Effect of Elasticity on Mobility and Mechanical Power Flow

猎豹等动物通常被认为是快速移动的典范，而实际上，像陷颌蚂蚁、甲虫和螳螂这样的节肢动物可以实现比猎豹高6个数量级的加速。学院早期职业发展(Career)奖助金的总体目标是开发分析和实验工具，以评估能够极端加速的生物体的动力学，并将这些原理应用于设计一种跳跃微型机器人，以十字甲虫为例研究生物体。甲虫属于一类有机体，它们使用闩锁和弹簧来放大它们的肌肉输出，并绕过目前阻碍微型机器人的相同的驱动限制。目前对这类生物体进行建模的技术水平缺乏适当的动力学考虑，这将使工程师能够将适当的原则应用于工程系统。该项目开发的技术对生物学和工程学都有好处。建模方法创建了一个框架来分析一组不同的有机体，这些生物体使用弹簧和闩锁移动得非常快。这些生物启发原理使微型机器人的设计框架能够将能量引导到机器人的部件上进行运动，并将能量分散到其他地方以防止机械故障。这项研究的生物启发性质使其成为推广的极佳候选者。外联活动包括为第一代本科生以及低收入和无代表的高中生举办讲习班和夏令营，以鼓励他们继续接受高等教育，特别是在与STEM相关的领域。这项工作将增进对生物学和生物启发系统中超高速运动动力学的基础知识。大多数研究生物系统中这些运动策略的文献只关注观察运动学，或者使用过于简化的动力学模型。建模方法，即移动功率流，提供了关于生物体如何使用和增加肌肉输出以及如何传递和消耗这种能量以实现灵活运动同时减轻损害的见解。在规划的建模方法中，甲虫或微型机器人被表示为由弹性和刚性衬底上的子结构组成的全局结构来模拟各种环境。每个子结构和结合处的功率传输和耗散的表达式将通过机械迁移率函数来研究，该函数可以通过解析推导或直接在实验中测量。这些模型和实验技术将创造一条研究和设计超高速小型动态系统的新途径。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Animals such as cheetahs are often thought of as the exemplars of fast movement, when in fact small animals such as arthropods like trap-jaw ants, click beetles, and mantis shrimps can achieve accelerations six orders of magnitudes more than a cheetah. The overall goal of this Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant is to develop analytical and experimental tools to evaluate the dynamics of organisms capable of extreme accelerations and applying these principles towards designing a jumping micro-scale robot, using click beetles as a case study organism. Click beetles belong to a group of organisms that use latches and springs to amplify their muscle power output and circumvent the same actuation limitations that currently cripple micro-robots. The current state of the art in modeling such organisms lack the proper dynamic considerations that would allow engineers to implement the appropriate principles to engineered systems. The techniques developed in this project are beneficial to both biology and engineering. The modeling approach creates a framework to analyze a diverse group of organisms that use springs and latches to move extremely fast. These bioinspired principles enable a design framework for micro-robots to direct power towards the robot’s components for locomotion and dissipate energy elsewhere to prevent mechanical failure. The bioinspired nature of this research makes it an excellent candidate for outreach. Outreach activities include workshops and summer camps for first-generation undergraduates and low income and unrepresented high and middle school students to encourage them to pursue higher education, especially in STEM-related fields. This work will advance the fundamental knowledge of the dynamics of ultra-fast locomotion in biology and bio-inspired systems. Most of the literature studying these locomotion strategies in biological systems focus on observing the kinematics only or use overly simplified models for the dynamics. The modeling approach, namely mobility power flow provides insights into how an organism uses and augments muscle power output and how it transmits and dissipates this power for agile locomotion while mitigating damage. In the planned modeling approach, click beetles or micro-robots are represented as a global structure composed of substructures on elastic and rigid substrates to model various environments. Expressions for power transmission and dissipation through each substructure and at the junctions will be studied through mechanical mobility functions, which can be derived analytically or measured directly in experiments. The models and experimentation techniques will create a new pathway to study and design ultra-fast and small dynamic systems.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.