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

像猎豹这样的动物通常被认为是快速运动的典范，而事实上，像陷阱颚蚁、金龟子和螳螂虾这样的节肢动物可以达到比猎豹多6个数量级的加速度。这项教师早期职业发展（Career）资助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跳跃的微型机器人，并将点击甲虫作为案例研究生物体。咔哒甲虫属于一种生物，它们使用锁扣和弹簧来扩大肌肉的能量输出，并绕过目前削弱微型机器人的驱动限制。目前这种生物的建模技术缺乏适当的动态考虑，这将使工程师能够在工程系统中实施适当的原则。本项目所开发的技术对生物学和工程学都是有益的。建模方法创建了一个框架来分析使用弹簧和锁来快速移动的不同生物群体。这些受生物启发的原理使微型机器人的设计框架能够将动力引导到机器人的运动部件上，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绝佳候选人。外展活动包括为第一代本科生、低收入和无代表的高中生和中学生举办讲习班和夏令营，鼓励他们接受高等教育，特别是在stem相关领域。这项工作将推进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运动学或使用过于简化的动力学模型。建模方法，即移动性功率流，提供了对生物体如何使用和增强肌肉功率输出以及如何传输和消散这种功率以实现敏捷运动同时减轻损害的见解。在计划建模方法中，点击甲虫或微型机器人被表示为由弹性和刚性基底上的子结构组成的全局结构，以模拟各种环境。通过每个子结构和连接处的功率传输和耗散表达式将通过机械迁移函数进行研究，这些迁移函数可以解析导出或直接在实验中测量。这些模型和实验技术将为研究和设计超快速小动态系统开辟新的途径。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.