The title of a recent ASME SmartBrief article “Why the hare (rabbit) always beats the robot” really caught my attention. We normally think of robots as being much faster at doing things than living creatures, but it turns out this is not the case.
Researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder and at the University of California, Berkeley discovered this motion advantage over robots as they said “as a bar-type conversation” about a decade ago. One of the examples they described had to do with cats as they prepare to pounce on a toy or some prey. They observed a “butt wiggle”, something most of us have seen but didn’t realize what it meant in terms of the quickness of their attack. What they realized it that “living muscle” contains all the elements of motion, whereas a robot has separate systems for each requirement. Muscle has its own built-in power system, attachment points to the joints, and lots of nerves creating a very complex control unit. These elements are all separate systems for a robot.
The researchers are optimistic that eventually emerging technologies will result in robots that can outperform the “hare”, however, I suspect that capability is probably not going to happen in the near future. – Dr. Tom
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