Robert Full: The secrets of nature's grossest creatures, channeled into robots

翻译人员: Wei Wu 校对人员: Yolanda Zhang

Even nature's most disgusting creatures

即使是自然界最恶心的生物

have important secrets,

也身怀一些绝技,

but who would want a swarm of cockroaches

不过谁会想见到一大群蟑螂

coming towards them?

朝自己冲来呢？

Yet one of the greatest differences between natural and human technologies

然而，在自然和人类技术间最大的不同之处中，

relates to robustness.

有一项与健壮性有关。

Robust systems are stable in complex

健壮系统能保持稳定，

and new environments.

即使是在复杂和新的环境里。

Remarkably, cockroaches can self-stabilize

引人注意的是，蟑螂可以保持自身稳定地

running over rough terrain.

跑过崎岖的路面。

When we put a jet pack on them,

我们又给它们装上了喷气背包，

or give them a perturbation like an earthquake,

或是增加了像地震那样的扰动，

we discovered that their wonderfully tuned legs

结果发现，它们的腿调整能力极强，

allow them to self-stabilize

使得它们可以自我保持稳定

without using any of their brainpower.

而无需大脑的辅助。

They can go over complex terrain like grass,

它们可以穿过像草地这样的复杂地形，

no problem, and not get destabilized.

没有问题，不会失稳。

We discovered a new behavior where,

我们发现了一种新的行为，

because of their shape,

跟它们的体形密切相关，

they actually roll automatically to their side

他们实际上是自动翻向一边

to go through this artificial test bit of grass.

来穿过这片人造实验草丛。

Robust systems can perform multiple tasks

健壮系统可以承担多重任务，

with the same structure.

系统结构却无需变动。

Here's a new behavior we've discovered.

这是我们发现的一种新的行为。

The animals rapidly invert and disappear

这些小家伙快速地翻了个个儿然后躲起来，

in less than 150 milliseconds — you never see them —

不到150毫秒——你根本看不到——

using the same structures that they use to run, their legs.

所用的结构仍然是它们用来跑的腿。

They can run upside down

它们可以翻过身来跑，

very rapidly on rods, branches and wires,

非常快，在竿子、树枝和电线上都行，

and if you perturb one of those branches,

如果你在树枝上施加扰动，

they can do this.

它们就会这样，

They can perform gymnastic maneuvers

它们可以做出体操动作，

like no robot we have yet.

我们还没有机器人可以做到。

And they have nearly unlimited

它们的动作能力几乎是无限的，

maneuverability with that same structure

使用的是同一结构，

and unprecedented access to a variety

适应各种不同环境的能力

of different areas.

也是前所未见的。

They have wings for flying when they get warm,

它们有翅膀，觉得热的时候可用来飞行，

but they use those same wings to flip over

而同样是翅膀，在它们失稳时，

if they get destabilized.

可以帮它们翻过来。

Very effective.

非常有效。

Robust systems are also fault tolerant and fail-safe.

健壮系统也是能容错并且防止故障的。

This is the foot of a cockroach.

It has spines, gluey pads and claws,

这是一只蟑螂脚，

上面有刺、胶垫和爪子，

but if you take off those feet,

但如果你把这些脚去掉，

they can still go over rough terrain,

它们仍然可以穿过起伏不平的地表，

like the bottom video that you see,

在下面的这个视频中你们可以看到，

without hardly slowing down. Extraordinary.

速度没有明显下降。真是非凡的能力。

They can run up mesh without their feet.

没有脚它们也可以爬上网子。

Here's an animal using a normal, alternating tripod:

这儿有一只，用的是通常的三足切换方式：

three legs, three legs, three legs,

三条腿，三条腿，三条腿，

but in nature, the insects often have lost their legs.

但在自然界，这些昆虫常常会失去腿。

Here's one moving with two middle legs gone.

这一只是少了两条中腿在爬。

It can even lose three legs, in a tripod,

它甚至可以少三条腿，像三脚架那样，

and adopt a new gait, a hopping gait.

用了一种新的，跳跃步态。

And I point out that all of these videos

我需要强调，所有这些视频

are slowed down 20 times,

都已经放慢了20倍的速度。

so they're actually really fast, when you see this.

所以它们实际非常快，虽然你看到的是这样。

Robust systems are also damage resistant.

健壮系统还是防损的。

Here's an animal climbing up a wall.

这一只要爬上墙。

It looks like a rapid, smooth, vertical climb,

看起来就是快速连贯地竖直向上爬，

but when you slow it down,

you see something very different.

但在慢镜头下，

你可以看到些完全不同的东西。

Here's what they do.

它们是这样的。

They intentionally have a head-on collision with the wall

它们故意用头撞墙，

so they don't slow down and can transition up it

这样就不用减速，

in 75 milliseconds.

可以在75毫秒内就把方向变为向上。

And they can do this in part because they have

extraordinary exoskeletons.

它们可以做到这一点，

And they're really just made up of compliant joints

一部分原因是它们有非凡的外骨骼。

这些外骨骼其实仅仅是些柔性关节组成，

that are tubes and plates

管状和板状结构

connected to one another.

彼此相连。

Here's a dissection of an abdomen of a cockroach.

这是蟑螂腹部的解剖结构。

You see these plates, and you see the compliant membrane.

可以看到这些板，和柔性薄膜。

My engineering colleague at Berkeley

我一个在伯克利的工程学同事，

designed with his students

a novel manufacturing technique

和他的学生们一起设计了

一种新型制造技术，

where you essentially origami the exoskeleton,

本质上是折纸型外骨骼，

you laser cut it, laminate it,

激光切割，再压片，

and you fold it up into a robot.

然后折成一个机器人，

And you can do that now in less than 15 minutes.

用不了15分钟就可以完成。

These robots, called DASH,

这些机器人，叫做DASH（冲），

for Dynamic Autonomous Sprawled Hexapod,

全称是动态自行扁平六足机器人，

are highly compliant robots,

是具有高度柔性的机器人，

and they're remarkably robust as a result

正是因为有了这些特性，

of these features.

They're certainly incredibly damage resistant.

稳固性相当高。

它们当然也具有相当的防损性能。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

They even have some of the behaviors of the cockroaches.

它们甚至具有了一些蟑螂的行为，

So they can use their smart, compliant body

因此它们可以运用自己的智能柔性身体，

to transition up a wall

转而向墙上爬行，

in a very simple way.

轻而易举。

They even have some of the beginnings

of the rapid inversion behavior

它们甚至可以做一点初级的

快速翻身动作

where they disappear.

将自己隐藏起来。

Now we want to know why they can go anywhere.

We discovered that they can go through

现在我们想知道：为什么它们可以畅通无阻？

我们发现它们可以穿过

three-millimeter gaps,

the height of two pennies, two stacked pennies,

三毫米的缝隙，

也就两个1分币摞起来那么高。

and when they do this,

they can actually run through those confined spaces

而当它们钻进去时，

它们实际上以很高的速度

at high speeds,

although you never see it.

穿过这些狭窄空间，

虽然你根本看不见。

To understand it better,

we did a CT scan of the exoskeleton

为了更好地进行了解，

我们对外骨骼进行了CT扫描，

and showed that they can compress their body

by over 40 percent.

发现它们可以压缩自己的身体

超过40%。

We put them in a materials testing machine

to look at the stress strain analysis

我们把它们放进了一个材料测试仪器

进行应力应变分析，

and showed that they can withstand forces

发现它们可以承受

800 times their body weight,

and after this they can fly and run

800倍于体重的压力，

而且压过之后，它们还可以飞可以跑，

absolutely normally.

完全正常。

So you never know where

所以你永远不会知道

curiosity-based research will lead,

以好奇心为基础的研究会发现什么，

and someday you may want a swarm

并且有一天你可能会希望看到

of cockroach-inspired robots

一群蟑螂型仿生机器人

to come at you.

向你冲来。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

Thank you.

谢谢大家。

(Applause)

（掌声）