CU: Pufferfish-inspired robot could improve drone safety in near future
Friday October 23, 2020
BOULDER -- A team of engineers at the University of Colorado Boulder has designed a robot that’s inspired by inflatable puffer
CU: Pufferfish-inspired robot could improve drone safety in near future
Friday October 23, 2020
BOULDER -- A team of engineers at the University of Colorado Boulder has designed a robot that’s inspired by inflatable pufferfish -- and it could make flying drones safer in the not-so-distant future.
PufferBot is the brainchild of graduate student Hooman Hedayati and his colleagues at the ATLAS Institute at CU Boulder.
It’s a skittish machine: This hovering quadcopter drone comes complete with a plastic shield that can expand in size at a moment’s notice -- forming a robotic airbag that could prevent dangerous collisions between people and machines.
The researchers will present their results virtually Oct. 25 at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2020). Think of it like introducing a bit of coral reef to the world of high-tech robotics.
“We were trying to design a safer robot that could communicate safety information to the user,” Hedayati said. “We started by looking at how animals do the same thing.”
Drones, he explained, are becoming a more ubiquitous part of our everyday lives, taking on tasks from inspecting bridges for cracks to delivering packages to your doorstep.
But as these machines proliferate in homes and workplaces, safety will be more important than ever.
“I’ve been working with drones for years, but whenever I go out and fly robots, I still feel not confident,” Hedayati said.
“What happens if it falls on someone and hurts them? Technologies like PufferBot can help.”
CU Boulder team members on the project include Daniel Leithinger and Daniel Szafir, both assistant professors in ATLAS and the Department of Computer Science, and Ryo Suzuki, a former graduate student now at the University of Calgary.
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