Photo © Copyright Andrew Curtis and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
There seems to be no end to the types of robots inspired by nature. This story about robotic swans had its start in an article that appeared in Tech Times several days ago. As I thought about how to write about these “swanbots”, I did some research about robotic swans and found that this application is not the first use of swans as a model for robot development.
In fact, the first “robotic” swan was probably this Silver Swan pictured here to the left. The machine was conceived and constructed by John Joseph Merlin in partnership with the London inventor James Cox in 1773. It is more accurately an automaton, in that it worked by means of a clockwork mechanism. An automaton is a self-operating machine… designed to follow automatically a predetermined sequence of operations…
And then we have our second robotic Swan, the dancing Swan, also known as the Dying Swan. This Swan robot was built to dance to Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake.” As those who have seen it dance describe it,
‘The Dying Swan’ is sometimes moving smoothly and gently, sometimes in a dramatic and fiery manner, as Tchaikovsky’s majestic music from the ballet Swan Lake is playing; yet this is no ordinary ballet dancer, but a robot in the form of a swan.”
Finally, there is are there is the third type of robot Swan that was in the original article that inspired this post. This is the robot Swan that gathers information about the environment of the water where it swims. Scientists will start testing robot swans in the Singapore River that will test and monitor the waters for things like pH level and oxygen to control pollution.
Nature has once again provided a model for robotics. In this case three wildly different types of robots based on the model of a Swan. If this is a topic that you find interesting please leave a comment and let me know what you think.
Sources:
Wikipedia, Silver Swan (automaton)
Wikipedia, Automaton
ScienceDaily, Dancing Robot Swan Triggers Emotion
EurekAlert, Dancing Robot Swan Triggers Emotion
Popular Science, Robotic Swan Majestically Dances to ‘Swan Lake,’ Moving Viewers to Tears
TechTimes, Robot Swans Swim Singapore River To Test And Monitor The Waters In Real-Time
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