New Robotic Rat May Be Used At Disaster Sited For Searching Survivors In Future

Jul, 2022 - By WMR

Researchers developed a new small sized four-legged robot, SQuRo that consists high movement agility which could be used in real-world applications

Scientists at Beijing Institute of Technology, China created a new small sized robot with four legs called SQuRo that possesses high movement agility and could be used in real-world applications such as at disaster sites for searching survivors, operating through narrow spaces. The new robot is based on body form and size of the Norway rat (rattus norvegicus) and it is named as SQuRo which stands for ‘Small-sized Quadruped Robotic rat’.

This robot has two degrees of freedom in all of its four legs, two in its head and two in its waist. The scientists replicated the long flexible spine of a real rat in this robotic setup, which allows it to bend its body quickly and turn around. The new robotic rat has minimum turning radius of 0.48 of its body length, which is the smallest in all other quadruped robots of same size. It is also lighter and slimmer than other robots with 220 grams of weight. It is capable of carrying cargo of up to 200 g weight, such as sensors or cameras. Moreover, this robots can right itself when it falls, walk over obstacles that are 30 mm tall, or squeeze through passages that have irregular shape and are up to 90 mm narrow.

Furthermore, the SQuRo is also capable of maintaining stable locomotion when it climbs up a slope of up to 15 degree. A microprocessor integrated in this robot controls its movements, which allows it to automatically switch between four basic modes of motion depending on the ground reaction force that it detects. According to the researchers, with further development in SQuRo, it would become usable at disaster sites for searching survivors or to perform inspections of areas that are hard to reach.