Insectoid robot

Then again, a wheeled robot might be even simpler, but may be entirely unable to solve the much more difficult problem of crossing rough terrain with unpredictable obstacles.

The legs and joints must be controlled individually and in combination according to information received from limb position and load sensors.

Research has shown that these gait patterns can still be generated locally in many insects even when completely disconnected from the central nervous system.

The characteristic side-to-side motion of the animal is at the biomechanical resonant frequency set by the insect's weight and spring stiffness of the combined legs.

[4] Researchers recognise the advantages of features of real insects, but as of 2004, "they have only rarely come together in a robot..."[5] For a very small aircraft, fixed-wing flight becomes impractical due to rapidly decreasing lift-to-drag ratio with size.

Ma et al. for instance, developed a tethered robot fly with flapping wings constructed of piezoelectric material.

At one time it was hoped that robots would avoid the need for such solutions because of the rapidly increasing processing power and decreasing size of computers according to Moore's law.

Attempts to control the angle of attack of the wings with a central processor were not successful because a lift to weight ratio greater than unity could not be achieved.

[12] Flying insects have poor visual spatial resolution, must respond rapidly, and have little to no advanced neural processing power.

Franceschini argues that it is not necessary to possess a visual cortex for the navigation task, and it would in fact be an unnecessary burden on an insect robot (both weight and processing time would be issues).