Robot Lobstrocities :: Technology Machines Papers

Robot Lobstrocities â€Å"Check this out,† Joseph Ayers, a biology professor at Northeastern University says as he turns on his laptop. The soundtrack from the 1975 film, "Jaws" plays in the background. On the screen is a grainy image of a moving creature lumbering towards a huge pile of bricks, easily maneuvering itself over them. The music reaches its climactic conclusion and a lethal claw dominates the screen. Fortunately it’s not a monster; it’s just a lobster. For Ayers, lobsters are fascinating creatures that has inhabited his life for most of his career. For more than a decade his team has worked on building a fully autonomous robotic lobster with the same behavioral patterns of the real thing. Funded largely by the US Navy, the hope is that it will one day be used for underwater mine detection as a less expensive and more efficient system to current methods. Hours were spent analyzing lobster behavior and its legs, claws, abdomen and tail movements. These observations were then converted into mathematical components, correlating the movements with the nerve signals that actuated them. In essence it makes a computer program act as the lobster’s brain. A big step from the field of artificial intelligence, the project is all about reverse engineering the biological functions nature has taken thousands of years to evolve and develop. â€Å"We’re probably one of the few laboratories in the world to get artificial muscles to work. To actually control a freely behaving robot. The other thing that’s different about our robot is that it really is controlled by the rules the nervous system works by, instead of the list of instructions to control the behavior, unlike AI based robots,† said Ayers. Starting out as a young biologist from California, Ayers is now one of forefront researchers of biomimetics, which takes ideas from nature and implements them into new technology. His project stemmed from his graduate days when he first studied the behavior of the lobster. Both sides of Ayer’s office are crammed with books on marine biology. It is a typical college professor’s office, except for the lobster claw mobile hanging from the ceiling. On the wall, a child’s drawing of lobster. A Superman comic book featuring, the Lobster Man. It’s obvious that Ayers has an affinity with these crustaceans. He admires their nervous system and adaptability to the sea. Their complex movements and ability to move on every surface of the sea floor.