RoboLobsters and Octopus Suckers Focus of New Experiments at Brooklyn College
Wilbur and Orville are no ordinary lobsters. They have plastic cylindrical
bodies, two large wheels for legs and three fiber-optic antennae. They
each have been carefully engineered to function like real lobsters, which
possess a sophisticated capacity to detect odors that define space and
help find food. Lobsters use their ultra-sensitive antennae to determine
the faintest trace of odors despite the chaotic effects of their home
environment, which includes strong bottom currents and sandy terrain.
Grasso's BioMimetic and Cognitive Robotics lab (BCR) relocated to Brooklyn College in September 2002 in order to continue studies intended to determine the foundations of lobsters' ability to "locate" sources of odor. These studies, which have historically focused on marine invertebrates, will evaluate alternative explanations for the intelligent behavior of vertebrate creatures.
Research in this area contributes to knowledge of
biology, psychology, artificial intelligence, fluid mechanics and robots.
In the future, technology developed through this research could be used
for a wide range of purposes, from localizing sources of pollution in
the environment to detecting unexploded mines.
"Lobsters understand their world through their chemical senses," said Dr. Grasso. "This is an ideal system through which we can realize the research objective of the BCR lab, which is to understand biological mechanisms of behavior and to facilitate the development of technologies inspired by animal abilities."
Professor Grasso is also involved in the study of octopus
as models for BioMimetic soft robot manipulators. Brooklyn College is
one of seven institutions pursuing this research under a $6.3 million
grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa). "The
octopus is a wonderfully mysterious creature," said Dr. Grasso. "The
suckers, an area we'll be focusing on, are unbelievably strong and are
even capable of cavitating, that is breaking apart water."