Never heard of the name “Robat”? that is the name given to the newly bat-inspired robot. A special robot meant to mimic the operations of Bats using sounds. We will be discussing the features of the Bat-Inspired Robot (Robat).
A new scientist’s publication just made a video coverage detailing how the newly manufactured Bat-inspired robot known as “The Robat” works.
A Bat is a kind of small, nocturnal, flying mammal of the order Chiroptera, which navigates by means of echolocation. Bats chose the night hours for their work of rapine; they struck and vanish, pouncing noiselessly but never showing up during the day.
The most vital aspect of Bats is their ability to operate through sounds. A Bat can locate its prey by mere use of its sound.
A new firm has used the working principle of Bats to make a robot that has similar characteristics.
Though the robot is a mobile type making use of tires like a small car with almost the toy size, it has all the necessary artificial intelligence technology that would enable it to operate independently.
While bats use the echolocation to navigate, this new robot does the same. Add to it, that the robot has an ultrasonic speaker and two ultrasonic microphones for its navigation communications.
It makes a short, sharp, noise of a bird or insect with a pulse of a signal whose frequency sweeps through a band of frequencies for the duration of the pulse. That happens every half a meter of its movement.
It then uses the time interval used by the sound for its travel to decide the next movement.
The time delay of the echo tells it how far away objects are by using the sent-received time interval calculations.
In other words, the robot can decide the distance of objects close to it by just conducting a short, quick, and sharp ultrasonic test by projecting a sound to it and receiving back the sound.
It has the potential of maneuvering obstacles and overcome gallops. As obtained when tested in a botanic garden. Its operation was found to be excellent.
The tires and its body showed stability during testing, helping the ‘robotic vehicle’ to navigate around the entire garden without any crashes.
Though it showed slow motion in its movement, its sensitive controlling units helped in running a smooth navigation system free from an error during the botanic garden test.
In its memory’s navigation control, a map showing the borders of the plants was created. This helped in its navigation control and making any sensitive decision in regard to a change of direction and other important navigation decisions.
Based, on the features obtained from this robot, farmers and the military may find it useful if it is commercialized. The reason is based on its self-controlling feature.
When equipped with necessary tools such as surveillance Wi-Fi cameras or AI cameras, hidden garden sensors, etc. the robot can walk through a farm in all its directions to bring a video coverage or photographs of the conditions of the entire farm.
If the hidden garden sensor can be attached to it, it can present the environmental data of the farm and how it is impacting negatively or positively the crops.
When it comes to military applications, the Bat-inspired robot can be a good spy robot that can move into the camp of the enemy unnoticed and transmit all the data possible within the environment.
Though more improvements on the robot may be necessary or may be added before its commercialization, others besides farmers and the military may find it very useful for special applications.
The aspect of Artificial intelligence used in this robot appears to be based on the ultrasonic system, however, it could be possible that written programs and sensors with the inclusion of the ultrasonic may have played the role in its success altogether, though not stated.
The ability to compose a map of the environment for pro-navigation information makes it a unique robot for land surveillance.
If equipped with the facial recognition feature, “Robat” can be the best robot for food and parcel delivery within the neighborhood.
