Development of a Robot Imitating Nomadic Spiders

Abstract

Aims: The main objective of this work is to develop a simple robot that can imitate the jumping spider (Salticidae) in its motion, as a first stage to building a complete robot that mimics them in many ways. Methodology: Biological systems are really complex in their complete make up; therefore the biomimicry employed here is to imitate scan-pause-scan motion employed by the spider. Their anterior media eye (the big eye) is imitated using a sonar sensor. The pausing period allows the robot to analyse the environment using low cost/ low power microcontroller. The system was then tested with different object at its front in other to investigate the robot one direction performance. Results: Most object were detected except when the object was 2 mm2 size wire gauze. In its case the robot did not slowdown as it approaches it. For all other objects, the robot slowed down before reaching them - although it did not apply enough braking force before it reach some of those obstacle. It was also found out that the robot performed up to 45 scans within the period it was moving towards the objects placed at 1 m ahead. Conclusion: This work is a preliminary work on the robot as first step in imitating the spider. The robot was able to imitate the biological model, jumping spiders (Salticidae) successfully in its pause-scan and move motion only – with the robot speeding whenever no obstacle was detected.