Here's something to look forward to. Fields, hillsides and vineyards crawling with giant robobugs. This, it seems, is the future envisaged by Ground Control Robotics, an Atlanta-Geogia based startup. Cue Horizon Zero Dawn style dystopia as the farm bugs suffer a "derangement" and we're all in deep trouble?
Hold that thought. Ground Control Robotics is developing what looks for all the world like giant robotic centipedes. Among other tasks, they promise a revolution in agricultural crop management. On the upside, that could mean far fewer chemicals are needed to control weeds. On the downside? Well, fields swarming with robobugs!
Anyway, the immediate question is why the centipede-like design? The answer is that it's all about mobility. "We want to send the robot as close to the crops as possible,” Ground Control Robotics founder and Georgia Tech professor Dan Goldmanexplained to IEEE recently, “and we don’t want a bigger, clunkier machine to destroy those fields."
Apparently, navigating a typical agricultural setting, especially if we're talking perennial crops like a vineyard situated on a slope with relatively rough ground as opposed to a very flat, highly organised seasonal fields, can be very difficult with robotics.
Sensing the environment and compensating for almost infinite and near-impossible to predict terrain reaction forces is a hugely complex challenge. But these giant bugs literally sidestep that problem entirely.
"It’s possible to generate reliable motion without any sensing at all,” says Goldman, “if we have a lot of legs." The resulting robot design, with its segmented body, multiple legs and even antennae-like touch sensors really does look and move like a centipede.
"We created a new kind of mechanism to take actuation away from the centerline of the robot to the sides, using cables back and forth,” says Goldman. "When you tune things properly, the robot goes from being stiff to unidirectionally compliant. And if you do that, what you find is almost like magic.
"This thing swims through arbitrarily complex environments with no brain power."
Currently, Ground Control Robotics is moving towards pilot projects on actual farms to refine the mobility and sensing capabilities of the bug bots. Exactly how long it might take to transition from the machines' current development spec to the possible future of fields swarming with the things, pulling out weeds, isn't clear.
However, in theory bots with this kind of robust mobility could also be used for a wide range of tasks from disaster relief to, inevitably, military applications. Much of that could well be hugely beneficial. The only slight snag is that we humans are very much evolved to be creeped out by the sight of crawling critters. So, even if everything goes exactly to plan and remains entirely under control, these machines will definitely take some getting used to if they become commonplace.
