Researchers look to ‘worm blobs’ to improve robotic movement
https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/09/researchers-look-to-worm-blobs-to-improve-robotic-movement/
What, you are no doubt asking, is a worm a blob? Well, it’s a blob of worms, obviously. More specifically, it’s a blob of California blackworms. It’s not a flock, nor a swam nor a school. It’s a big, undulating mass of a Lumbriculus variegatus tangled up, but somehow moving as one.
Roboticists, of course, have a long, storied history of drawing inspiration from nature. This time out, a team at Georgia Tech studied the aforementioned worm blob in hopes of learning gaining insight into its unusual form of locomotion. The researchers believe they can apply some of the learnings to rethink the way robots move.