1989年兩位麻省理工學(xué)院的人工智能研究人員做出了令人恐懼的預(yù)測。 羅德尼·布魯克斯(Rodney Brooks)和安妮塔·弗林(Anita Flynn)寫道：“在短短的幾年之內(nèi)，數(shù)百萬微型機(jī)器人或?qū)⒔柚统杀镜膬?yōu)勢占領(lǐng)地球�！彼麄冊谡撐摹犊焖伲畠r(jià)和失控：機(jī)器人入侵太陽系》中認(rèn)為，快速移動(dòng)、微型自主的昆蟲式機(jī)器人很快就會變得足夠便宜，可以通過規(guī)�；鉀Q問題。
Nearly three decades later, those millions of tiny robots have yet to take over, at least not exactly like Brooks and Flynn envisioned. While they were right in some ways—the world has more than 700 million active iPhones—the vision of the fast, autonomous, tiny, buzzing bot is still a dream. Fly-sized bots have mastered liftoff, flight, landing, but all while bound to an outside power source. That is, until now.
近三十年后，地球還沒有被這種數(shù)以百萬計(jì)的微型機(jī)器人所接管，至少不像布魯克斯和弗林所設(shè)想的那樣。雖然他們在某些方面是正確的——目前全世界全球有超過7億部正在運(yùn)行的iPhone ——但快速移動(dòng)，微型自動(dòng)的昆蟲式機(jī)器人仍然是一個(gè)夢想。不少大規(guī)模的飛行機(jī)器人已經(jīng)掌握了升空，飛行，著陸等技能，但都受限于外部電源。至少到現(xiàn)在還是這樣。
Sawyer Buckminster Fuller, a mechanical engineering professor from the University of Washington who is not related to the inventor of the geodesic dome, announced on Tuesday that his lab has freed this humming device from the wires that have constrained its range and movements. Instead, the robot has a tiny photovoltaic cell—a mini solar panel—that takes in power from a laser.
本周二華盛頓大學(xué)機(jī)械工程教授索耶·巴克明斯特·富勒(Sawyer Buckminster Fuller)宣布，他的實(shí)驗(yàn)室已經(jīng)將微型飛行機(jī)器人從限制其活動(dòng)范圍和飛行軌跡的導(dǎo)線中解放出來。其實(shí)驗(yàn)室開發(fā)的新型機(jī)器人配置了微型光伏電池——一個(gè)迷你太陽能電池板——能夠從激光器中獲取能量。
Fuller wanted to follow biological principles, which meant deviating from mankind’s most useful invention—the wheel. Most modern electronics, such as the electric engine, rely on some sort of rotary motion. Biology, on the other hand, usually involves more of a undulating pattern. For example, try making a wave with your arms. Next, try to imitate a spinning wheel. Actually, don’t do that, it’s painful. Fuller’s bot has the rapid wing-beating motion of a hummingbird rather than a helicopter.
本周二華盛頓大學(xué)機(jī)械工程教授索耶·巴克明斯特·富勒(Sawyer Buckminster Fuller)宣布，他的實(shí)驗(yàn)室已經(jīng)將微型飛行機(jī)器人從限制其活動(dòng)范圍和飛行軌跡的導(dǎo)線中解放出來。其實(shí)驗(yàn)室開發(fā)的新型機(jī)器人配置了微型光伏電池——一個(gè)迷你太陽能電池板——能夠從激光器中獲取能量。
Though the small scale means that the faux-biological design takes up less power than an equivalent motor, the robot still uses a lot of power. There are no commercially available batteries that produce enough juice to power flight—the batteries for hearing aids are the right size, but too weak, according to Fuller. The laser delivers a higher voltage than what comes out of a US electrical outlet, and only about a quarter of that actually gets to the device. “It’s a pretty inefficient way to get power to the robot, but the robot doesn’t take much power,” says Fuller.
富勒研發(fā)的機(jī)器人能夠像蜂鳥一樣飛行，要比等效電機(jī)耗電更少，但機(jī)器人仍然消耗大量電力。根據(jù)富勒的說法，市面上的電池?zé)o法為機(jī)器人飛行提供足夠的動(dòng)力，比如助聽器的電池尺寸雖然合適，但電池容量太小。而激光器提供的電壓高于美國電源插座的110V電壓，而實(shí)際上僅有四分之一的能量能夠傳到飛行機(jī)器人。富勒說：“這是一種非常低效的機(jī)器人供電方式，不過好在機(jī)器人不會耗費(fèi)太多的電力。
Now, just because this bot is no longer bound by a wire doesn’t mean it’s going to replace the bees that pollinate your apple orchard. The laser has to be less than seven feet away from the robot in order to give it enough power. And beams of light, unlike wires, are hazardous to human eyeballs, which means that these bots are not going to be free to play Johnny Appleseed any time soon.
當(dāng)然，采用激光器供電僅僅意味著機(jī)器人不再被電線所束縛，并不意味著它能夠完全自由飛行。發(fā)出的激光必須距離機(jī)器人不到7英尺遠(yuǎn)，以便于提供足夠的功率。與電線不同，這種光束對人眼有害。
Outside the lab, insect-sized autonomous robots could prove as practical as their larger counterparts, the drones. Scientists are not likely to solve the power problem any time soon, but these bugs can still be useful in short bursts. Their hoverability allows the bug bots to go on reconnaissance missions that the bigger robots are not well-suited for. “You could take a bunch of them, disperse them to gather local data, and go back to the mothership,” says Xinyan Deng, a bio-inspired robotics researcher at Purdue University.
在實(shí)驗(yàn)室之外，昆蟲大小的自主機(jī)器人可以證明和大型無人機(jī)一樣實(shí)用�？茖W(xué)家們不可能很快解決供電問題，但這些微型機(jī)器人在短時(shí)間工作內(nèi)仍然可以發(fā)揮作用。其可控性允許微型機(jī)器人執(zhí)行較大機(jī)器人不適合的偵察任務(wù)�！澳憧梢岳盟鼈兪占镜�?cái)?shù)據(jù)，并返回母艦，”普渡大學(xué)仿生機(jī)器人研究人員Xinyan Deng表示。
The robots of the future could perform surveillance, track down pollutant leaks, and perform search and rescue missions in small, confined spaces. “Nature has evolved for so many millions of years,” says Deng. “We can learn a lot from nature and build these systems to achieve certain goals.” Insects have had 400 million years to evolve—it may take roboticists a few more years to develop equally invasive tiny robots.
未來的機(jī)器人可以跟蹤監(jiān)視，追蹤污染物泄漏，或者在狹小空間內(nèi)執(zhí)行搜索和救援任務(wù)�！按笞匀灰呀�(jīng)進(jìn)化了好幾百萬年，”Deng說，“我們可以學(xué)到很多東西，根據(jù)自然物的性質(zhì)構(gòu)建相應(yīng)系統(tǒng)以實(shí)現(xiàn)某些目標(biāo)。要知道有些昆蟲已經(jīng)進(jìn)化了4億年，我們要開發(fā)出同樣功能的機(jī)器人也需要一定的時(shí)間�！�
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