Va. Tech scientist wins grant for work in robotics
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by Rex Bowman
Published: March 20, 2007
A Virginia Tech professor has won a $400,000 federal grant to figure out how to make a robot move like an amoeba, allowing it to shift shape and squeeze through tight spots.
Dennis W. Hong said his proposed Whole Skin Locomotion mechanism would make it possible for search-and-rescue robots to glide through earthquake debris and under collapsed roofs. They could even slip through holes with diameters much smaller than the robots’ normal width.
“Wheels can’t go over rubble and legs can’t go through, but this can squeeze through,” said Hong, 35, director of Tech’s Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory.
The amoeba, the restless, one-celled paisley of the microscopic world, uses its entire surface to gain traction and move itself along. Hong’s mechanism uses the same principle, he said: with a cylindrical shape and expanding and contracting rings, it can continuously turn itself inside out to mimic the propulsion of an amoeba. “It’s like a 3-D tank tread.”
The National Science Foundation has given Hong $400,000, spread over five years, to build and test robot prototypes with the locomotive system. Hong said early experiments have shown a robot built along the lines of an amoeba can easily squeeze between obstacles or under a collapsed ceiling.
Hong, who came to Tech in 2003 and is also a semiprofessional magician, said his fascination is in trying to find ways to make robots move. He’s designing a six-legged robot for NASA that would be used in space walks.
The amoebalike robot, he said, could be as big as a meter for search-and-rescue operations, or as small as 5 millimeters. The smaller version, he said, could be put inside a hospital patient to travel around and perform examinations.
He said questions such as how to power the robots and what flexible material to build them of still need to be addressed. “We’re really doing the base, ground research work to make this happen. So you won’t be seeing this in five years. But one day . . . “
For more information on Tech’s Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory, go to http://www.me.vt.edu/romela.
Contact staff writer Rex Bowman at or (540) 344-3612.
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