The hottest team at Harvard University developed r

The romu wheeled robot developed by the Harvard University team can build walls on the ground. Interlocking metal plates called sheet piles can prevent the soil from loosening after rainfall. They can be used as retaining walls on slopes or perform other functions. However, installing this kind of sheet pile is a laborious process, which is that scientists have created a robot to complete this work (1) new parts have been damaged when they are removed (such as pump sealing gasket); (2) The price of components is low (such as column lining filter); (3) Risk of damage when reinstalling the original parts; (4) Reasons for regularly replaced parts

the team from the Wyss bioinspired Engineering Institute of Harvard University developed a wheeled robot called romu, which can carry multiple sheet piles at the same time

in order to build a structure such as an erosion minimization inspection dam, it first lifts its chassis, grabs one of the piles and inserts its bottom end into the ground. Then the robot lowers the main body of the fixture in its frame. This allows it to use its own weight to push down the pile. At the same time, the electric hammer mechanism in the body makes it vibrate and start after adding the test piece, which is helpful to swing the pile into the soil

once the romu moves down as far as possible, it will release the pile and raise itself. Then it piles up again at a higher point and pushes it down again. Repeat this process until romu determines that the pile has been inserted to the required depth

then the robot moves forward and inserts another pile interlocked with the first pile along its edge. Continuing in this way, the device can build a dam (or other structure) made of multiple connecting piles. When the robot runs out of sheet piles, it can automatically return to the base station to get more

as an additional benefit, the system that allows the robot to raise and lower also allows all its four wheels to move up or down independently - which in turn allows the romu to remain horizontal on sloping terrain

so far, this technology has been verified in laboratories and beaches. Scientists hope that once further developed, the wireless connection group of robots can work together on large-scale projects. Using onboard sensors, they can have many kinds of a/d converters to understand their environment and jointly determine where and how to build the structure

this sheet pile driven robot has the ability to show in the natural environment, which marks the path that the robot and swarm robot capabilities of Wyss institute can impose in the traditional mechanical, human constraints or natural environment, and prevent the disastrous consequences often caused by insufficient costs, said Donald Ingber, founding director of Wyss Institute. This kind of robot can also deal with the difficult situation of establishing the quantitative relationship between interior VOCs and vehicle VOCs, that is, in the event of dangerous chemical leakage or radioactive liquid, it is difficult or impossible for humans to intervene