Lecture

Master in IC: Ariane and the Robot Fish

Graph Chat

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.

Description

This lecture follows Ariane Pasquier, a first-year master's student in computer science at EPFL, as she works on a semester project to create a robot fish that can navigate both land and water by following light cues. The project involves understanding animal locomotion, creating models inspired by the animal world, and developing robots that can adapt to different terrains, potentially aiding in inspection tasks post-catastrophe.

Official source

Related concepts (20)

Robotics

Robotics is an interdisciplinary branch of electronics and communication, computer science and engineering. Robotics involves the design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist humans. Robotics integrates fields of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, information engineering, mechatronics engineering, electronics, biomedical engineering, computer engineering, control systems engineering, software engineering, mathematics, etc.

Robot

A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may be constructed to evoke human form, but most robots are task-performing machines, designed with an emphasis on stark functionality, rather than expressive aesthetics.

Animal locomotion

Animal locomotion, in ethology, is any of a variety of methods that animals use to move from one place to another. Some modes of locomotion are (initially) self-propelled, e.g., running, swimming, jumping, flying, hopping, soaring and gliding. There are also many animal species that depend on their environment for transportation, a type of mobility called passive locomotion, e.g., sailing (some jellyfish), kiting (spiders), rolling (some beetles and spiders) or riding other animals (phoresis).

Terrestrial locomotion

Terrestrial locomotion has evolved as animals adapted from aquatic to terrestrial environments. Locomotion on land raises different problems than that in water, with reduced friction being replaced by the increased effects of gravity. As viewed from evolutionary taxonomy, there are three basic forms of animal locomotion in the terrestrial environment: legged – moving by using appendages limbless locomotion – moving without legs, primarily using the body itself as a propulsive structure.

Aquatic locomotion

Aquatic locomotion or swimming is biologically propelled motion through a liquid medium. The simplest propulsive systems are composed of cilia and flagella. Swimming has evolved a number of times in a range of organisms including arthropods, fish, molluscs, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Swimming evolved a number of times in unrelated lineages. Supposed jellyfish fossils occur in the Ediacaran, but the first free-swimming animals appear in the Early to Middle Cambrian.

Related lectures (64)

Neuromechanics of Terrestrial Locomotion

Explores computational modeling of terrestrial locomotion, focusing on neural circuits, biomechanics, and gait optimization.

Investigating Sensorimotor Control

Investigates sensorimotor control in locomotion using robots and mathematical models, exploring bimodal locomotion, insect walking, and undulatory swimming.

Improving Robot Design: Data-Driven Approaches

Explores data-driven approaches to improve robot design, focusing on compliance, soft materials, and complex interactions.

Cooperation of Assistive Robots

Explores the cooperation of assistive robots in improving nursing care productivity and creating a vibrant society by 2050.

Acquiring Data for Learning