Natural-artificial hybrid swarm: Cyborg-insect group navigation in unknown obstructed soft terrain

Navigating multi-robot systems in complex terrains has always been a challenging task. This is due to the inherent limitations of traditional robots in collision avoidance, adaptation to unknown environments, and sustained energy efficiency. In order to overcome these limitations, this research proposes a solution by integrating living insects with miniature electronic controllers to enable robotic-like programmable control, and proposing a novel control algorithm for swarming. Although these creatures, called cyborg insects, have the ability to instinctively avoid collisions with neighbors and obstacles while adapting to complex terrains, there is a lack of literature on the control of multi-cyborg systems. This research gap is due to the difficulty in coordinating the movements of a cyborg system under the presence of insects' inherent individual variability in their reactions to control input. In response to this issue, we propose a novel swarm navigation algorithm addressing these challenges. The effectiveness of the algorithm is demonstrated through an experimental validation in which a cyborg swarm was successfully navigated through an unknown sandy field with obstacles and hills. This research contributes to the domain of swarm robotics and showcases the potential of integrating biological organisms with robotics and control theory to create more intelligent autonomous systems with real-world applications.

Toward the smooth mesh climbing of a miniature robot using bioinspired soft and expandable claws

While most micro-robots face difficulty traveling on rugged and uneven terrain, beetles can walk smoothly on the complex substrate without slipping or getting stuck on the surface due to their stiffness-variable tarsi and expandable hooks on the tip of tarsi. In this study, we found that beetles actively bent and expanded their claws regularly to crawl freely on mesh surfaces. Inspired by the crawling mechanism of the beetles, we designed an 8-cm miniature climbing robot equipping artificial claws to open and bend in the same cyclic manner as natural beetles. The robot can climb freely with a controllable gait on the mesh surface, steep incline of the angle of 60{\deg}, and even transition surface. To our best knowledge, this is the first micro-scale robot that can climb both the mesh surface and cliffy incline.