Researchers used fossil evidence to engineer a soft robotic replica of a marine organism that existed nearly 450 million years ago.
Humans have been walking the earth for roughly 300,000 years. In fact, our time on earth represents only 0.007% of the planet’s history. Therefore, the modern-day animal kingdom that influences our understanding of evolution and inspires todays’ mechanical systems is just a fraction of all creatures that have existed through history.
To broaden our perspective of animal design and movement, researchers in Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, in collaboration with paleontologists from Spain and Poland, are introducing Paleobionics—a field aimed at using Softbotics, robotics with flexible electronics and soft materials, to understand the biomechanical factors that drove evolution using extinct organisms.
Using computational simulations and soft robots, the researchers have given pleurocystitid, a marine organism that existed nearly 450 million years ago, new life. Pleurocystitid, a member of the echinoderm class, which includes modern day star fish and sea urchins, were one of the first echinoderms capable of movement using a muscular stem. Despite the absence of a current-day analogue, pleurocystitids have been of interest to paleontologists due to their pivotal role in echinoderm evolution.
The team used fossil evidence to guide their design and a combination of 3D printed elements and polymers to mimic the flexible columnar structure of the moving appendage to build the robot. They demonstrated that pleurocystitids were likely able to move over the sea bottom with the aid of a stem that pushed the animal forward and determined that wide sweeping movements were likely the most effective motion. Increasing the length of the stem was also found to significantly increase the animals’ speed without forcing it to exert more energy.
News Source: Carnegie Mellon University
